Jim Caesar review - intimate soul from a new angle.
With over 325,000 Spotify plays already, Jim Caesar is making waves with lyrics that make you want to delve deeper into his mind with every sentence. His music, with such sincerity makes you want to understand him.
I walked into the venue just as he started his first song; every inch of ground was occupied. There were loads of people sitting on the floor like his words were those of a modern day prophet that everyone was sitting around to learn from and take in. Jim was sat at the piano performing his track Dutty Wine, a song familiar with his audience that instantly brought everyone together with a sense of unity and pride. The song is about how the party feeling can take over you; in the video Jim looks incredible in a sparkly dress as he tries to connect with a girl by becoming her. The more he indulges in drinking and partying, the more real it feels. His creativity is so innovative and unique that it draws you in with so many unanswered questions that you are dying for him to answer with his next move.
Whilst there is a strong sense of London ingrained into Jim’s persona and music, his vibe is easily transatlantic. There is an intimacy to his performance that captivates like some of the serious soul prodigies such as Pharrell, Prince and Michael Jackson, but whilst he has an aura of these international supernovas he maintains a humble and proudly British style.
Caesar teases us with new track, ‘Moonlight’ constantly leaving the whole crowd wanting more from him and then delves into Soul Purpose, a super groovy number filled with soulful romance with lyrics like “I’m scared to run out of you”/ “my destination’s you”. It’s refreshing to hear a sound with those timeless 70’s elements that also comes through as fresh and futuristic, taking you on a soul-searching journey into a style of Alternative RnB/Soul that you really never have heard before. Jim Caesar has the ability to tap into soul from a different universe with an unspoken justification, giving the genre a new angle that could be the start of something huge.
Self-describing his sound as ‘nostalgic freshness’ could not be more accurate for his last song 1205 (my personal favourite song of his). The song starts “It’s 12:05, I’m moving through the midnight” and takes you down a road into that romanticised, creative state that many of us get into at that time. The sense of unity returns to the room as people begin to understand Jim Caesar and connect to him in a way that we have all been there at midnight caught up in our own heads. Just as we begin to touch on understanding him, he has finished leaving everyone in the room itching for more.
I am so excited for what is next from Jim, his complaints of a sore throat added to his humble and raw existence that so many people love already. I look forward to him embarking on this trip through future-soul that could very easily be a phenomenon for British RnB.
