A three-year intermission between records in the opening stage of a career is a luxury that not many performers may afford. James Morrison, a BRIT Award 2007 winner, concluded that he was the one who deserved it. As a result, after releasing two albums and flashing for a moment on top of charts, the artist vanished suddenly to come back just now. He has returned with an album he calls his first real work. The musician clarified it by saying that before that he had only been studying and maturing until he for experience enough to show everything he has got. The Awakening features Morrison in the same role of a charismatic musician with a moving sadness from soul and appealing negligence from indie-rock. Morrison’s music and lyrics have nothing singular to display, but bear a strong influence be those whom many performers would be happy to follow. And if you still at times listen to Undiscovered (2006), or at least that amazing album’s single You Give Me Something, the new work by James is going to delight you just as well.
Morrison’s endeavors to record more than just a collection of good songs, something like a coherent complex piece could be deemed successful. The Awakening is focused on the artist’s reminiscent, experiences and thoughts concerning his relations with his father who is already gone. This topic embraces four songs, two of them seeming the entire record’s highlights. Up is Morrison’s collaboration with Jessie J, a young performer with a glorious future predicted. The Person I Should Have Been is the only song written by James all by himself, and it voices the scream of desperation that oppresses the son who failed to help his father out. Besides, The Awakening, of course, stores some room for romantic ballads. I Won’t You Let Go, Say Something Now, and Right By Your Side not only demonstrate James’ brilliant vocal skills, but also reveal most beautiful confessions of love for the singer’s girlfriend Gill. The set, mostly composed of slow and sad material, is diluted at times with songs of a different kind. Danceable Slave To The Music looks a perfect match for concerts, while the title The Awakening is just a very bright piece to cheer you up.
Those who like criticizing everything and everyone will find it a tough task to discover a single drawback in James Morrison’s whole new album. The record is perfectly executed, and the artist must be very glad about what he personally did for this CD. Morrison looks equally comfortable with both touching ballads and blazing upbeat stuff, although the latter kind is rare here. The Awakening will hardly disclose all of its strong sides to you after the first listen. Purely hit stuff with catchy tunes is not what the record is about. The explanation is that Morrison took chance recording an autobiographic album with lyrics playing a part as important as the music would. It takes you to be really attentive to what James sings about to get to the core of the music and discover its beauty and depth. It is nothing but a sheer pleasure to watch the musician mature so early and know that he aims to hit the intelligent and considerate audience. There is no doubt The Awakening is a decent continuation to James Morrison’s discography.
Songs For You, Truths For Me
Undiscovered
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