Jamie T: Kings And Queens :: Wessex Scene Online

Jamie T: Kings And Queens

16th November 2009
Kathryn Hegarty

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Arguably this follow up record appears to be a little too contrived and even a bit too catchy.

Jamie T is still an artist that hasn’t quite found himself, and his sound is hard to pin down. He has the potential of being fantastic but many of his tracks are missing something or are just falling short of being brilliant. Arguably Kings And Queens has a stronger stench of money attached to it than his debut Panic Prevention, which had such great success partly because it was so raw and untouched. This element still exists in the form of his fatal flaw: his words are often unintelligible and this often means that the poetry of his lyrics get lost in the mumble and pace of the record.

The album doesn’t come off to a strong start with the lazy ‘368’ that tries to pull off a Mike Skinner ‘laid back London boy’ honesty, but it sadly falls flat on its face and is a bad choice to start the album with. There is, however, some progression in his style, in particular with the final track ‘The Curious Sound’ his tone takes a more soulful route that leans away from his hip-hop backbone and pulls us in other directions. The surprises in Kings And Queens seem to come more towards the end, so stick with it if you’re unimpressed and jaded with his starting efforts of ‘368’ and ‘Hocus Pocus’.

‘Man’s Machine’, the third single to be taken from King And Queens has a very interesting hook with an intro from the Angelic Upstarts, a 1970s punk band from South Shields. This sums up how eclectic Jamie is, as he draws his style from so many influences: pop, punk, hip-hop and arguably folk. This reminds us what a master of music Jamie T can be. Jamie is more of an apprentice than a master, with touches of genius mixed in with a few flat tracks, but despite this any die-hard Jamie fans will love this record.

‘Chaka Demus’ and ‘Sticks n Stones’ hail back to ‘Sheila’ and ‘If You Got The Money’, and carry with them the vibe he generates at a live show - he is a performer at heart and you can’t help but dance to it. The biggest surprise of the album is the sensitive ‘Jilly Armeen’. It has the potential to be a more authentic and believable version of the Plain White T’s, ‘Hey there Delilah’. This acoustic song has real heart and it’s the track that makes you stop and actually listen, and then listen to it again and again. This is where Jamie excels as a musician rather than just as a performer and shows off his great potential as a UK artist.

Despite all this you can’t help liking Jamie’s record, as he succeeds in touching all the right bases and pleasing his diverse following. Die hard Jamie T fans will not be disappointed, in particular with the stand out tracks such as ‘Sticks n Stones’, as it is classic Jamie T at his best. His London boy jack-the lad and dare I say it chavy image doesn’t always convince and there is a very thin line between vulnerable and vulgar when it comes to his lyrics. People that are new to Jamie should probably give his debut Panic Prevention a listen to first.

Good: Jamie T fans won’t be disappointed.

Bad: Some tracks fall short of brilliant and let down the album.

Score: 60%