Album of the week – In My Room by Jacob Collier

“In My Room” by Jacob Collier is Eastside Radio’s album of the week.

The album that we are featuring across the station this week comes from afar as we give some well deserved attention to a young man from London. This young man has already mastered some skills that would take others a lifetime to achieve, Jacob Collier is a natural when it comes to music. As a singer, arranger, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Jacob has given us his debut album with the fitting title of “In My Room”.

Now the reason behind the title of the record is that apart from him recording all of the album in his home in North London the story of this man’s popularity and road to stardom all started out in his room. Back in 2011 at the young age of 17 Collier used the internet to his benefit. Say what you like about the world wide web it has its pro’s and it’s con’s however what it has done for emerging artist’s in all sectors is something outstanding and jaw dropping. The sudden burst of going from one fan to a million fans can be done in a timeframe that would have taken artists’ before the 21st century years to accomplish.

It was a given that Jacob was going to be some what involved in the music industry as he had the natural talents being brought up in a musical environment as his Mother and Grandfather teached at The Royal Academy of Music in London and his father is also a musician. Having such talented people around him it would have broadened his knowledge and opened his mind to a variety of different genres, as commonly someone of his age tends to get blindsided by the commercial pop music that just gets thrown out time after time again. It is a real uplifting sense to know that we have such great emerging artists’ coming through in the world of Jazz, that have such a passion for what they do and to keep on bringing their own uniqueness to it.

He may have been put in the right direction coming from a musical background but it was Collier who used his own generations interests and put them to his full advantage. In 2011 Jacob first started uploading the homemade YouTube videos such as his cover of “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” however it was in 2013 after a few more videos that he uploaded his multi-instrumental rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing” and that was the winning ticket that would shoot him across the globe to millions of viewers and with that a lot of these viewers became fans, big fans. You had the likes of Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Steve Vai and Take 6 instantly interested in who this kid from London was.

The album was released on the first of July this year and if you were to listen to it without any visuals you would be shocked to find out there was only one artist. Across 11 tracks we are brought on a musical experience like no other. With a lot of electronic sounds Jacob combines elements of Jazz, A cappella, Groove, Folk, Trip-hop, Classical music, Brazilian music, Gospel, Soul and Improvisation. Some might say there is even too much going on all at once but then again this is the originality of it. A track that will be one of the big favourites off the album is the acoustic sounding hit ‘Hideaway’, you will also find some light hearted notes such as the ‘Flintstones’ that bring some quirkiness to this piece.

An artist who the likes of Herbie Hancock have said “Wow!! Jacob, your stuff is amazing” and Chick Corea calling “Magnificent” is surely an act to look out for. When you have Quincy Jones who has worked alongside the likes of Sinatra, Miles Davis and many more of the greats saying “I’ve never heard anybody like that before,” Jones says, “his talent is just frightening.” Then you just know that this music prodigy has got something special. There is no denying he is a natural born artist, the instruments and equipment that he uses in his own unique way are one of a kind. Take a look at one of his videos and you will be blown away as to what the future holds.

You can follow Jacob Collier’s career at jacobcollier.co.uk or via his FACEBOOK page. For an extended listen to the album, tune in on Thursday from 1.30PM – 2PM for ‘Album of the Week’ with Josh Crosbie. Don’t forget to also listen out for your opportunity to win a copy of ‘In My Room’ all week. You must be a supporter to win so make sure to sign up at https://eastsidefm.org/support-us-2/. You can also stream the station at WWW.EASTSIDEFM.ORG.

Artist Listing 

Jacob Collier

Track Listing