Catching Tales

After becoming a UK superstar with his 2004 release Twentysomething, a piano-driven meld of jazz and pop with a singer/songwriter’s instincts, Jamie Cullum faced the usual challenge of following up a huge hit while pushing his music forward. As did Norah Jones — an obvious, but perhaps inevitable, comparison — he succeeds. Catching Tales is a comfortably hip leap forward, as Cullum again visits a few chestnuts (“Our Day Will Come,” “I Only Have Eyes for You,” “I’m Glad There is You”) and introduces himself to the likes of arty Ed Harcourt as a co-writer (“Back to the Ground”). The result will no doubt be widely heard in fashionable restaurants on at least two continents, but more to the point, Cullum works his charm on the solitary listener too. As Twentysomething did in the UK, this album is likely to make him a star in the U.S.