Album: Jamie Lidell, Jim (Warp)

OK, I get it, even though it sounds like bad Motown it's actually a clever-clever, 21st-century take on soul and funk music through the ages.

And there was silly old me thinking this was just derivative tosh. "I wanted to make it commercial just as an experiment," Lidell said recently, a statement that, presumably, permits lyrics to come courtesy of the Funk Clichés Phrasefinder: all gotta get this outta my systems and a little bit of feel good goes a long way. Lidell's last album, 'Multiply', showed that a mid-thirties white man could take on the funk and win. The best you can say about 'Jim' is that it's slightly less irritating than Jamiroquai.

Pick of the Album: 'Rope of Sand' is the only non-'Stars in Their Eyes' performance