Latest Review: Jem - Down to Earth

Jem
Down to Earth
Genre: Pop
Highlight: It's Amazing

MUSIC critics may have been singing the delights of Duffy in recent months, but in doing so they've missed the return of another Welsh wonder.

While Duffy's debut Rockferry has won multiple awards and become 2008's best-selling album in the UK, Jem has seen her comeback album delayed by several months, and then eventually choke into the charts at number 64. It almost seemed as if the UK had forgotten the singer-songwriter from Penarth altogether.

But Down to Earth, her second album, and follow-up to 2004's Finally Woken, has been worth the wait. Jem's first album impressed critics with its eclectic musical stylings when that came out, wandering into the surreal sounds of trip hop, and her second release sees another exploration of the weird and wonderful side of pop music.

There's still plenty of the trip hop sound in most of Jem's songs - clearly she's taken inspiration from the likes of Massive Attack and Portishead - but on the latest album the diversity expands ever further. There's ballads, there's hip-hop sampling, there's duets with African vocalists, and most of it sounds brilliant.

It's just a shame some of the braver efforts try and ultimately fail. Aciid!, in particular, comes across as a misguided attempt to do dance music, and not only sounds dreadful but doesn't seem to sit on the tracklisting comfortably.

Yet almost all Jem's songs, and particularly lead single It's Amazing, just seem so much braver than anything her counterparts put out. Think of it as Dido with a more daring edge.

Album provided by Tesco, Llandudno Junction