Jamie Woon
Scala, London
24/02/2011

He’s a proper puzzle, is Jamie Woon: his heart’s obviously in the thick of the dancefloor even though his shapes suggest he’d be more comfortable skulking at the edges, he occasionally wields a guitar in spite of being blessed with only rudimentary rock frontman skills, he’s far from uneasy on the eye but in an anything-but-fit-and-you-know-it sort of fashion, and he’s rather heartwarmingly excited to actually be headlining a venue that, while frequently fine, is admittedly mid-level in scale. Frankly, we’re not sure that anyone this cool has been so, well, uncool, since the heyday of Jarvis and Beck.

Still, Woon’s a deeply droppable name at present, hence one of the most curious crowds we’ve seen in a while, and we’re not convinced that everyone’s entirely, dare we say it, convinced. Then again, he’s still clearly working out what kind of a pop star he ought to be, and that’s actually a pretty shrewd manoeuvre; after all, there’s no shortage of performers expanding the definition of dubstep this year (notably Blake, B and Boxcutter), so the fact he uses the sound of the narrowly-underground as a starting point is inspired, and it’s probably inevitable that ‘Night Air’, all galloping lego horses, bassy mystique and warbled wanderlust, is a highlight even beyond its familiarity.

Elsewhere, mind you, there are some fascinating stylistic choices. Taking the path more Princely, as he often does on the forthcoming ‘Lady Luck’? Excellent call, obviously. Adopting a more look!-I-can-do-twangy-too! approach? Risky, but his honeyed pipes, all Seal-like phrasing and streetwise tremolo usually save the day. Getting lost in an oozing hole of oohing soul? Why, that’s just ill-advised. But where he really earns his stripes is in those more stripped-down moments, since, like his fellow Brit School alumnus Adele, keeping it spartan and spacious wrings out pathos aplenty; fashionable trappings aside, it’s as a torch singer that Jamie’s really at his most magic.

Iain Moffat