Jamie Woon - Making Time

If there’s one truth running through Jamie Woon’s first album in four years, it’s that he’s spent the spare hours settling into his skin. There’s been a near-silence in the interim years since 2011’s ‘Mirrorwriting’, save a Disclosure guest spot and a collaboration with jazz group Portico. But that hasn’t just made Woon a distant memory of previous BBC Sound Of polls. Instead, he’s cemented his knowhow as a producer, finding a muse in slick-as-it-gets pop.

On his first work, Woon captured smoothness without really backing the hype. ‘Making Time’ has a swagger in it step, and the songs follow suit. Lead single ‘Sharpness’’ stop-start basslines are backed with tightly-wound melodies, and the production on should-be-a-hit ‘Movement’ is worth marvelling at.

Woon is prone to getting carried away in a D’Angelo nodding, babymaking aesthetic. ‘Celebration’ has a Spanish villa vibe that’s languorous instead of smart and ‘Thunder’ falls limp. Still, ‘Forgiven’ showcases the kind of playful funk early-Justin Timberlake would beg to steal, and ‘Little Wonder’’s dreamy coda could be mistaken for ‘In Rainbows’-era Radiohead. Comparisons are all well and good, but ultimately ‘Making Time’’s strength is in asserting exactly what Woon specialises in. After so many years away, a reminder was much needed.