Genre: Singer-songwriter, minimal, electronic
Key songs:
"The Wilhelm Scream"
"I Never Learnt To Share"
I can't say anything about this record that hasn't been said before. For those of you who still don't know James Blake: He's a young singer-songwriter and producer and was one of the first artists to really explode in 2011. Only 23 years of age, you could say that's quite a feat there. In this day and age, that actually means nothing. I'm already sorry for the rant I'm going to be going on here against the media these days but in the era of the internet you could be a 3 year old and still be popular world wide for your musical talent.
The actual peculiar thing about Blake's music is that it is so spacious and minimalistic while still remaining very accessible. He incorporates a lot of elements from electronic music, not to use the word dubstep or IDM, and turns them around to create something very intimate and organic. And while it doesn't always pan out, like most of the latter half of this record, it still sounds cohesive and daring enough to forgive his self titled debut for its faults.
Limit To Your Love is one of the examples of Blake's unique sound. He manages to create a whole new atmosphere out of the soulful Feist original. The drilling bass together with the very confidential voice of Blake himself make for an incredibly well executed, unexpected cover. And while I still prefer the original by a lot, mostly because I'm a Feist geek, you can't not give him props for this effort.
The real gem on this record is The Wilhelm Scream, where Blake manages to create a very chilly soundscape that sounds like it was recorded in a glacier. But under that layer of ice there's something very dark and warm, almost brooding to come out in some kind of climax. Those climaxes happen very rarely on this record. There are a few there, like the end of I Never Learnt To Share, but ultimately I think they actually detract from the experience a bit. Luckily the rest of the song is so great it doesn't matter. It does manage to create something very polar with the next song, Lindesfarne. Which is split in two parts: one very intimate vocal performance by Blake layered in auto tune, blossoming into the beautiful second part.
As you can see, I'm in love with the first half of this record. Not to say the second half is bad, and it's necessary for Blake to put himself on the map, but most of it sounds too bleak for its own good. I might be the one of the only ones with this opinion though, together with Giggs. I haven't really kept up with the critical response for this record after the initial hype. I do know that Blake is a guy to watch out for in the future, even if his EP Enough Thunder was very hit or miss.
If you like experimental singer-songwriters and you're a fan of basically anything electronic this is a no brainer. I might even recommend this to people who are fans of soul, because I feel this is where the genre is heading, or should be heading to, nowadays.
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http://img.imgcake.com/vincetrumenttabletpnget.png
An abstract painting called 'Vincetrument', Cokes, 2012