''Taller'' is the eighth studio album by British jazz musician

Jamie Cullum Jamie Paul Joseph Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is an English jazz-pop singer, pianist, songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. He h ...

, released through

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

on 7 June 2019.

Background

Cullum divulged that the title of the album was a reference to attention toward his height in comparison to that of his wife,

Sophie Dahl Sophie Dahl (born Sophie Holloway on 15 September 1977) is an English author and former fashion model. Her first novel, ''The Man with the Dancing Eyes'', was published in 2003 followed by ''Playing With the Grown-ups'' in 2007. In 2009, she w ...

, quipping that he "managed to completely break one of the laws of the universe by marrying a taller woman and it was quite interesting how much that was talked about".

Release and promotion

During the 2018

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...

, Cullum premiered the tracks "Taller" and "Mankind" from the album. The album's title track was made available along with pre-orders of the album in May 2019. Ahead of its release, two additional songs were made available on music streaming services: "Drink" and "The Age of Anxiety" on 8 May and 31 May, respectively. Cullum announced in May 2019 that he was set to embark on a tour across the United Kingdom to support the album in March 2020. In Dave Simpson's review of Cullum's performance at the

York Barbican York Barbican is an indoor entertainment venue located in York, England. Named after the nearby barbican attached to Walmgate Bar, the venue hosts a busy calendar of live music, comedy and sports, as well as business events and conferences. ...

for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', he deemed some of Cullum's routines "well-worn" but praised Cullum's versatility as well as his "aplomb".

Critical reception

Awarding the album four stars out of five, Matt Collar of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

regarded ''Taller'' as "sophisticated and emotionally unguarded". The album was also chosen as one of the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

''s albums of the week on 7 June 2019. Writing for the publication, Andre Paine deemed the album a "bold reinvention". Conversely, Steven Wine of the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

'' noted that the album was "stylistically scattershot" but that "there’s something for everyone".

Background

Release and promotion

Critical reception

Track listing

Charts

References