Jamie Woon - Making Time

Pitchfork 74

A classic singer-songwriter never goes out of style. The soulful and enigmatic crooner Jamie Woon rediscovered this in the four long years between his charming-but-uneven debut album, Mirrorwriting, and the release of his second, Making Time. Rising with a fresh crop of UK-based, slightly experimental vocalists and collaborators in the London bass music scene (think Jessie Ware, James Blake, and Sampha), Woon’s debut produced sophisticated music that ultimately failed to catch on as strongly as his contemporaries.

Like many artists in his position, Woon could have become a victim of the time, a footnote to a rising scene. But Woon took the opportunity to realign with his musical origins. In a 2011 interview with BBC, Woon said "At the heart of what I do is R&B; it’s groove-based vocal-led music." On Mirrorwriting that "R&B" was partially obscured in production atmospherics, but Making Time exhibits a renewed focus. The album sounds loose and organic, revealing layers of precision in the production and recording on repeated listens.

Inspired by D'Angelo’s Voodoo, Woon was interested in recording with a live band in the room for Making Time, a far cry from the electronic-roots of his debut. "My starting point was that I wanted to hear a funky rhythm section," Woon offered to Pharrell Williams in an interview on Beats 1. Mirrorwriting was distinguished in part by collaborations with revolutionary musician and producer Will Bevan (otherwise known as Burial), but Making Time reduces songs to their core elements: a perfect harmony, strong melodies, and a crooning voice that is unlike any other.

Woon's vocals are rare and stunning, the kind of sound that washes over its listeners, and no synths or heavy-handed production is needed to make that effect possible. The instruments here play supporting roles. "Movement" transforms halfway through its length into a groovy, throwback jam, and the slinky, snake-like bass guitar cocoons Woon’s voice without overpowering it. Later the horns gradually stomp in. Their sound is elastic and ominous, pushing and pulling against the light fluidity of Woon’s ad-libs. And on "Sharpness", the album’s lead single, the bass pops in and out of the song just as much as the steady drums. The result shouldn’t surprise, but still does.

Channeling pieces of piano jazz and folk as well as R&B, Making Time feels philosophically similar to Jessie Ware’s restrained 2014 sophomore effort, Tough Love. Many described the work as "adult contemporary"—an insult, if not entirely untrue. But that sort of designation fails to engage with the work at hand, lumping it all together. And while it never hit as hard as "Running" on Ware’s debut, songs like "Kind Of … Sometimes … Maybe" and "Champagne Kisses" offered surprises brimming underneath the surface. It’s smart music that doesn’t beat you over the head with its intelligence. If Woon’s last album was an attempt to incorporate the contemporary sounds he favored at the time, this current album is a testament to the strength of traditional music composition: simple guitars, slinky bass lines, and sophisticated songwriting. Woon has, from the start, been his strongest when he lets his voice say everything that’s necessary. This might come across as traditionalist, but that is OK. With songs this good, little else needs to be said.