Jamie T - Panic Prevention.

He provides a breath of fresh air, he keeps things basic in most of his songs and he likes to use the C word quite a lot.

He's a quirky kind of guy, a more lovable Mike Skinner, if you will. He's been compared to the likes of The Streets (for obvious reasons), Lily Allen and Audio Bulleys to name a few, but I'd much rather like him to be in a category of his own.
He's special!




What we have here is 12 punchy songs that will either dig their claws into your skin or have you reaching for the skip button. Of course the correct button you should be messing with, is the volume control.

He doesn't really sing, par se. Well, sometimes he does, but most of his vocal are spoken/rapped/toasted. And that's one of the major keys in this collection. The way he delivers his vocals either add to the melody or more often than not are the melody. If ever there was an album with big dirty great hooks in it, that could reel in a pool of sharks, then this could certainly be in with a fighting chance.

Some of the tracks consist of very little by the way of instruments. There's two tracks with just Jamie and a guitar; the intro track "Brand New Bass Guitar", which has Jamie telling a tale of woe over a backing vocal that sounds like it's been provided by a local working men's club and "Back In The Game" in which he does a lot more singing than in any other track. Both tracks are also standout tracks on the album for being the furthest removed from the rest of 'the formula', which is more of a Street Pop/Hip Hop kinda thing. But don't let that put you off if Hip Hop ain't your thang, it's very listenable.

A lot of the songs have a keyboard that provides an insatiable hook. It's delivered in such a way that it provides an element of being something so simple that it tickles those childish feelings inside. Like when you found out that you had just enough money to buy those sweets. These hooks are particularly effective in the 'minimal' tracks such as "Dry Off Your Cheeks" and "Alicia Quays", which is just a drum loop and a bass....then the keyboard appears from nowhere.

His singles haven't paricularly faired very well. "Sheila" seemed to get loads of air-play but didn't really do much damage to the Charts. His latest single, "Calm Down Dearest" is doing pretty well and deservedly so. His vocals initially delivered in a 'drunken state', acompanied by a staggered drum beat, then we are greeted with a lush Motown style background. Samples of strings are spliced in here and there until he hits the chorus where he sings again. The chorus reminds me a Manic Street Preechers song, but I don't know if it's a specific one or just the style in which he sings.

"So Lonely Was The Ballad" is a tale about street life. Again, there's a mixture of his vocal style between rapping/talking and singing. About half-way through there's a sample of some guy talking about panic attacks. It's quite a slow tempo song, with a groovy bassline and a funky keyboard.
"Operation" chews up and spits out that idea. What we get here is a quick tempo song, with guitar, drums, bassline a plenty, tinkling keyboard and crowd samples. About half way through, the guitar melody take over and suddenly it's almost turned into one of those songs you see in movies where Russion guys dance. The final part of the song is driven by the guitar again, but this in an 'indie/pop' stylee. It works! It completely works!
There's something remeniscent of Franz Ferdinand in "Pacemaker". I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing though. The music is a standard indie type beat, with Jamie going into semi-shouting mode and using the C word quite a lot. Naughty boy!
"Salvador" is one of my favourites on the album. It's an instant song, digging its hooks in early with the chord changes, emphasized by his vocals once again. He sings the chorus in this one and it runs at great pace, ever driving forward. I'm not too convinced by the "hoo haa" chants, but the fact that he delivers the line " a wop bop baloo bop ta wop bamboo" surely must be something to cheer!
Another one of his singles, "If You Got The Money" is an infectious song at the best of times. Broken drum patterns are acompanied by a strong bassline and a figity guitar while he meanders through his tale. The sample from Inner Circle's "Sweat" is quite clever, as is the way it almost goes all Drum N Bass on yo ass for the last half,. It's just the plinking guitar that saves you from it's Junglistic nature.
"Ike And Tina" has the obligatory samples, but they're a lot more subtle than you'd expect. The pace of this song is rollercoaster speed and that's probably not such a bad thing as in my opinion, it's the weakest track on the album. Nothing outstanding on this track and even though I think it's the weakest, that doesn't mean it's not a good song, 'cos it is.

I like it Jamie T!
I've been awaiting this album for a long time now and it's comfortably delivered everything I hooped it would and so much more.

This will be filed in the "Play Very Often" folder until further notice.