Jim (2008)

Jamie Lidell bowled over the bloggerati several years ago with Multiply, a soul-soaked throwback to the heyday of labels like Stax and Motown. (It helped pique their interest, of course, that Lidell is incongruously white, British, and signed to an esoteric techno imprint.) His follow-up Jim retains the river-deep-mountain-high baritone and rolling horns of yore, and tracks like ''Another Day'' and ''Green Light'' are near-impeccable time capsules. It's hard not to wish, though, that Lidell would transcend what is essentially a Donny Hathaway tribute act and dig out something more intrinsically his own. B
DOWNLOAD THIS: Listen to ''Another Day'' on AOLMusic