Jim Bob - The Best Of Jim Bob

Excerpts from the lives of everyday people

There’s not been much change in the world of Jim Bob since Carter USM were topping the album charts 14 years ago. Either under his own name, or fronting Jim’s Super Stereoworld, he’s continued to churn out lyrically busy snapshots of modern life with more characters and plot twists than a month of soap operas. The Best Of cherry-picks the most endearing moments of his six albums since Carter’s demise in 1997. It’s a corner of the playground that is undeniably his own: a small detail on the musical landscape where Beck meets Lionel Bart. For someone working on a, presumably, limited budget, Jim’s low-fi symphonies are extraordinarily epic, be it the tongue-in-cheek urban clean-up of Come On Smart Bomb, or the school disco stompathon of Candy Floss. A second disc gathers together a choc-box of unreleased items and remixes, all of which knock spots off the bulk of big-sellers soiling our airwaves. Jim has written the music for this year’s panto at the London Barbican, but ignore any shouts of ‘He’s behind you!’, and let’s look forward to a whole lot more of this kind of thing in the years ahead.

Cherry Red | CDMRED 312 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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