Beck, Feist on New Jamie Lidell LP

Latest effort from the shapeshifting Lidell due in May.

By Blurt Staff

Warp Records will release Jamie Lidell's third full-length album Compass on May 18. The album was recorded in Los Angeles, New York and Canada. Guests on Compass include Beck, Feist, Gonzales, Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear and Pat Sansone of Wilco.

Warp calls it his "most eclectic album yet. Songs shift, chop, change and mutate genres and forms before our very ears. It's got funk in spades; the jaw-dropping power of the vocals is stronger than ever; it rocks, it pops, it's sweet, angry, hard, soulful and soft, often within the span of a single track. It's the restless album that finally matches the soul of its creator."

Sessions began at Beck's Hudson Studios in Los Angeles, where they got together with Wilco, Leslie Feist and veteran drummer James Gadson (who's hit sticks for Bill Withers, Quincy Jones among many others) for Beck's Record Club project. Inspired by the chemistry of those jams, they shifted to the legendary Ocean Way Studios. There, they were joined by producer/keyboardist Brian Lebarton, singer Nikka Costa, and Justin Stanley. All would have an important impact on the album. Pat Sansone from Wilco and Chilly Gonzales (who's played on both Multiply and Jim) were present as "musical meta-spirits," recording their parts remotely and delivering them via the internet.

Back in New York Lidell began to make sense of this (in his words) "great big mess on the hard drive."Then it was up to Feist's ranch in the Niagara Escarpment with Chris Taylor, producer and member of Grizzly Bear.

"I wrote every song in a month," Lidells said. "It's been an emotional couple of years, so I tapped into what I wanted to say and started writing. There was a lot to draw on."

Lidell plans to tour 2010 with a band again - "but stripping it back; keeping it lean."