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$24.99 CD
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JAMIE WOON
Mirrorwriting
(Polydor)
 "Night Air"
"Echoes"
UK singer/songwriter Jamie Woon drops his long-anticipated debut album, and it delivers (mostly) on the promise of his "Wayfaring Stranger" single from a few years ago, and the buzz of his live sets. A graduate of the BRIT School, a performing arts academy which also gave us Adele and Amy Winehouse, Woon started as your typical open mic troubadour before discovering the sounds of DJ Shadow and Radiohead's Kid A during his formative years, which led him to set his guitar aside for a bit and submerge his songwriting in new textures. That first single, released back in 2007, gained him attention not only because of Woon's sultry blue-eyed soul voice, but also thanks to a great remix from Burial, then still a mysterious figure riding his first wave of curious intrigue and attention on the back of his own self-titled debut album.
They continue the collaboration here as Burial contributes production on about a third of Mirrorwriting's tracks, and it's honestly a match made in heaven; Woon's lyrics often deal with themes of introspect amidst desolated urban landscapes, and his words have real impact with his voice backed by ghostly choirs and gently percolating beat clicks. Woon frontloads Mirrorwriting with the Burial productions, and then as the record progresses, brings more of his guitar in while scaling back the already minimal and stark beats. Vocally, Woon elicits obvious comparisons to Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Craig David (and hell, what's that if not a compliment!), but the one person I keep going back to (and again, BIG compliment here) is early Terence Trent D'Arby, as he ably blends the aesthetics of stripped-down eccentric soulboy weirdo with that of genuine heart-on-my-sleeve troubadour, quite admirably. And it's his vocals that hold everything together; where so many songwriters caught in a balancing act between displaying their sincerity and an ear for innovation tend to smother their assets in too much electronic frippery at times, it's refreshing to hear someone with such a warm, strong, tender voice actually use it for a change. He's working in the same area of heartfelt late-night soul bearing that the xx and James Blake trade in, but Woon's vocals are more assured than either. Where the xx highlight the tender awkwardness between a shared moment and the pleasure and pain it can provide, and Blake seems keen to codify his sentiments into indecipherable sequences of zeroes and ones, Woon seems to be the most sensitive loner in the neighborhood, walking through town by himself, crooning to the heavens.
It makes for one of the most promising debuts of recent memory, and fans of any of the aforementioned artists should take note; he's a talented young songwriter and a great singer, with his finger enough on the pulse that this album can appeal to everyone from cynical trainspotters waiting to hate, to bored housewives looking to love, to average-Joe music fans who just want some good tunes that get their heads bobbing. I wish he would have shuffled the running order a bit, mixing up the Burial tracks with the rest for a more even flow, but in the end, it's a truly enjoyable ride from start to finish. [IQ]
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Iceage 
