It’s only February and James Blake has already released what will probably shape up to be the most frustrating album of the year. The record continues on the trajectory set by his first three EPs, moving away from the thick, sample-heavy dubstep of his first two releases towards a very minimal, piano and vocal based sound. The transition has been kind to Blake’s commercial prospects, earning him a high placing on the influential BBC “Sound of” poll. The problem is that he has left himself too little to work with, resulting in a record that is so sparse it almost disappears.
His approach works well on tracks like “Measurements” and his brilliant cover of Feist’s Limit to Your Love, but too often it just comes off flat. Take the two track mini-suite of Lindisfarne I & II, for example; the two songs sound like a particularly poor cast-off from Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreak sessions. Album highlight is undoubtedly recent single Wilhelm’s Scream, which builds to a triumphant murky climax, with Blake’s voice retaining a beautiful vulnerability despite its obvious strength.
As a long time fan (as much as you can be a long time fan of someone who has been releasing records for less than 18 months), I was really hoping that the finished record would not be the same as the version that leaked onto the net in early December. Unfortunately it seems that the final product is exactly as it was two months ago, an album possessing moments of real beauty but somehow not sounding quite finished.
Download: “Wilhelm’s Scream”.
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