His record company has been touting
David Jordan as the next big thing for a while and at the end of 2007, he released his debut album,
Set the Mood without the blaze of publicity one might have expected from "the next big thing", but sometimes albums that are given a chance to build slowly last longer in the consciousness than those which are released in a blaze of publicity. That was certainly the case with
Set the Mood, which hovered between
Prince (one of
Jordan's childhood idols) territory, and
Justin Timberlake's stop-go production, and that was no bad thing. Whether
David Jordan eventually turns out to be as successful as
Timberlake only time will tell; as of the beginning of 2008, he had a long way to go, but having
Trevor Horn produce his debut album was a good start. The hit single taken from
Set the Mood was "Sun Goes Down," an ethnic flavored song with a bit of traditional Greek influence, a little Israeli folk song, and even a German oom-pah beat in the background. So who else does
David Jordan sound like apart from
Prince and
Justin Timberlake? Well,
Seal springs to mind on the opening track "On the Money" and "Glorious Day," and
Terence Trent D'Arby on the tracks "Place in My Heart" and "Love Song," but
David Jordan should not worry about comparisons to other soul or soulful singers, he has made a confident debut album and it will be interesting to see what direction this young man takes. ~ Sharon Mawer