Taller by Jamie Cullum

Taller by Jamie Cullum

Cullum has always walked this fine line between jazz and pop, and it's a tricky one to navigate : when he tries to go full on jazz (as in his 2014 release Interlude), he lacks the depth and inventiveness to bring something new to the form. When he steers to far into pop (as one a number of tunes throughout his carreer) it just goes too shallow. After a first listen of Taller, I was concerned that this new album was just pop all the way through, but a couple of repeated listenings made me realise that it's something of a false impression: the issue here is too many soppy ballads (as if there existed any other kinds). The rest is actually quite good.