James Morrison

Blue-eyed soul is Songs for You, Truths for Me.

This handsome Brit sure knows how to belt out a dramatic tune with requisite flash, flavor and flair. He's the male version of his fellow stateswoman, Joss Stone. Both Morrison and Stone sing with seasoned veteran aplomb, even though both are in their early twenties. Morrison is all of 24-years-old, but he's got an old, experienced soul that inhabits his entirety. While Morrison's voice soars in a showy way, he's not a showoff. He's gifted, and he isn't afraid to exploit his instrument to the hilt and use it to bring pleasure to others.

"The Only Night" kickstarts the album. It's a jazzy barn-burner that gets the party going. A deeper cut, "Fix the World Up For You," maintains a similar, bombastic tone, but it's rousing and stimulating, not obnoxious! Morrison cycles through a plethora of moods on Songs for You, Truths for Me. "Save Yourself" erupts into a dreamy swirl, while "Nothing Ever Hurt Like You" cuts a groove that was born of a love for Marvin Gaye and the nostalgia of classic Motown sounds. "Please Don't Stop the Rain" will send female Morrisonites into a tailspin swoon, with its sexy, soulful crooning. Let's face it. Morrison is serving up woman-friendly, white-boy neo-soul that's never in danger of giving off a "manufactured" staleness. Morrison is fresh and heartfelt, and that'll ensure that he's around to reap the benefits of a long and lasting pop career, even as he ages.

— Amy Sciarretto
10.08.08

What separates James Morrison from fellow Brit singer/songwriters like James Blunt and Daniel Powter is his taste for soul. Sure, this may have been fostered in part by his fondness for Elton John -- whose presence is as inescapable in Morrison's music as it is in Blunt, Powter, or any number of modern-day pop troubadours -- but Morrison picks up on the splashy soul of John's middle-period, weaving in elements of Stevie Wonder and Van Morrison to create a retro-soul vibe that's more about the song than the groove. This is more true on Songs for You, Truths for Me than it was on his 2007 debut Undiscovered, as he piles on horn sections, sings with a gruff studied soulfulness, and even cribs from Van's "Crazy Love" on his own "Precious Love." All this soulman posturing can come across as a bit too earnest, but it does give Morrison a heft and measure of grit missing in the simpering Blunt, which lends Songs for You some pleasing sonic textures not all that dissimilar to John Mayer's Continuum, but Morrison isn't just about sound, he can construct good pop songs, especially when he goes for big, bright hooks, as he does on the '70s soul pastiche "Save Yourself" and "The Only Night," which recalls Elvis Costello in his Get Happy! phase. These talents kind of contradict the soul-baring promise of the album's title, but Morrison kind of drags when he gets into ballad territory, like the Nelly Furtado duet "Broken Strings." He's better on easy rolling numbers like "Please Don't Stop the Rain" or when he puts a bit of a kick in the tempo, as the energy accentuates his popcraft, which is more energetic, forceful -- and, yes, soulful -- than his peers, something that comes into sharp relief on this solid sophomore affair. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide