James Blake – James Blake – 2011 – (Vinyl) 320 kbps, 13. You Know Your Youth (02:15) 320 kbps MP3. Code: Select All. Blake (320).rar. Open the Actions menu and click Resend Message. Once loaded, the user can look through the series of words, flip them over to get the English meaning, as well as view the Pinyin pronunciation. Sophomore album Overgrown offers a similar feeling, but Blake approaches the songs here with even more restraint and a subtly deconstructed take on pop. Subtlety is perhaps Blake's greatest attribute on Overgrown, with what could even be the album's heaviest moments blurring into a pleasantly melancholy whole through deft production choices. On every minute JAMES BLAKE is able to set his personal bunch of absolutely unconventional sounds and song structures into a ten song album conception, Overgrown works slowly song by song as well as a homogenous longplayer. Even he has passed a new level, his second album is an enchanting and well balanced masterpiece.
In only a few quick years, James Blake's name and reputation have grown exponentially. Back in 2010, he pioneered the 'post-dubstep' genre (consisting of pretty much just him back then) with the much-loved CMYK EP. His mixture of jazz, soul, and bassy undertones made for a rich and unique listening experience unlike anything else on the scene. In 2011, he released his debut self-titled LP, diving further down the rabbit hole that CMYK started and fully realizing Blake's genre-blending style. Between the Bon Iver nods of 'Lindisfarne' and the melancholy dubstep throwdown of 'I Never Learnt To Share', James Blake was an odyssey of a record that took more than a couple listens to comprehend. After disappearing back into shadow with a couple fairly inaccessible singles and gaining a secondary fanbase as a tried and true piano man with his lovely Joni Mitchell cover on Enough Thunder, James Blake now returns after his longest interim yet (just barely over a year). With a bit more time away, Blake has readied his LP follow up to the self-titled in the form of Overgrown (released yesterday), an album in every way removed from its predecessor. From the beginning, we've known Blake to never stay in the same place for long, and that couldn't be more the case here. Overgrown is simultaneously a completely fresh picture of Blake as an artist and the culmination of all his stylistic experimentation thus far. In short, if you like James Blake, you'll love Overgrown. But if you've been shy in the past, Blake might offer you something on Overgrown he hasn't before.
In February, Blake dropped the Overgrown announcement while BBC DJ Zane Lowe spun the album's lead single, 'Retrograde'. Immediately, you can hear and even feel the passed time on the track. Blake's vocals aren't hiding underneath reverb, distortion, and envelope filters anymore - they are front and center on the track. The timid boy reaching manhood we saw on James Blake is gone. The conviction on the track sees Blake a new man, with a ferocity that any prior release wouldn't dare show. The track itself sounds different, too. The dizzying complexity of James Blake and even that of Enough Thunder is nowhere to be found. This is a straightforward electronic R&B track with some verses, a hook, and a killer chorus. From the guy that wrote 'The Bells Sketch' and 'Sparing The Horse', this was a bit interesting. On the record, 'Retrograde' is followed by 'DLM', a sparse piano track on par with his 'A Case of You' cover, in terms of simple beauty. Tracks like these shake up the habitual for Blake, and may surprise those that have been listening closely for the last couple years. The obscurity of his past work isn't really evidenced here, but what is present is a cleaner, leaner machine that shows the sum of Blake's parts with an extra coat of polish.
If you are listening to his lyrics, Blake lays it out pretty straightforward for you in the opening track. 'I don't want to be a star, or a stone on the shore, or a doorframe in a wall when everything's overgrown', he croons. There's a lot to digest there. As the clock ticks on his life, Blake doesn't want to be sitting on the sidelines or let his surroundings become him completely. If you think about it, becoming by mitosis is pretty easy in Blake's industry. After all, fashion of all kinds changes quickly and leaves no room for those who fall behind. But Blake moves forward consciously with Overgrown, offering us a record whose locomotion doesn't allow for much moss to grow. In these few words, Blake is putting it straight: sure, he's made some wonderful music in the past couple years, but that's no excuse to stay comfortable and keep pumping out the same product. Blake is reinventing himself constantly whether you like it or not.
So, just how else is he doing that, you may ask? No two tracks on Overgrown are the same. The Brian Eno produced 'Digital Lion' gives us perhaps the most familiar shade of Blake we see on the record, but even here, Eno's production evident, and the collaboration between the two puts the track just off kilter enough to give us a completely new experience. 'Voyeur' is a skittering house track that begs to be played in clubs (there aren't many James Blake tracks you can really describe that way) and evolves as it goes on into a drugged dubbed out jam. Then, completely out of left field, 'Take A Fall For Me' sees Wu-Tang pioneer RZA rapping contemplatively over Blake's ethereal foray into hip hop. The bonus track 'Every Day I Ran' sees Blake sampling Big Boi for another hip hop offering.
James Blake Overgrown Album Zip
Overgrown is unlike anything Blake has released thus far, but if we're honest, you can really say that about anything he's released in longer than three month increments. Blake continues to pioneer his own way through the dark cloud of electronic music, taking occasional turns towards pop and R&B before backing into mystery once again. Overgrown is out now on Universal and Blake's own 1-800-DINOSAUR label on CD, digital, and vinyl. Blake is touring in support of Overgrown and will stop in Seattle on April 23 at the Neptune Theater with FaltyDL. Grab tickets here.
James Blakes selftitled debut is without doubt a strong debut album, and a modern classic.
His experimental neo-dubstep on that album, was full of James Blakes creative production, mostly snippets of his soulful voice. At times it was to experimental for me. And too little focused and lacking structure. A collection of songs rather than a complete album.
Now that his second album is here, I have to admit I was a bit excited and sceptic if he managed to outdo his first album.
The first single “Retrograde” showed a “new” James Blake. He sounded less experimenal and more laid back. The production was softer, James Blake focused more on his vocals – he dared to be a vocalist, an singer songwriter. James Blake is not only a producer, a songwriter, arranger – but he´s also a extraordinary vocalist. With a voice that sounds like a cross between Talk Talks Mark Hollis, Antony & The Johnsons Antony Hegarty and the norwegian singer songwriter Thomas Dybdahl. Warm, soulful – smooth!
With his second album, James Blake have grown up, but not outgrown himself.
The production is better, he has written songs this time – almost all songs have full lyrics and a structure instead of snippets of looped vocals like on the debutalbum. If Blake had tried to outdo the debut album – make an even more experimental – make a James Blake pt II, I am afraid he would have tried to hard.
James Blake Overgrown Album
Instead he has mellowed the production, and he looks back. I can hear traces of trip hop here. Artists like Massive Attack, Tricky and even Björk seems to be inspiration, he even flirts with the dancefloor here and there.
Second track and third track “I Am Sold” and “Life Round Here” both tracks makes me think how Massive Attack around “Protection” would sound with James Blake as guest vocalist. The only guest artists is vocalist from Wu-Tang/Gravediggaz member and actor/screenwriter/director RZA who raps in english (instead of american) on “Take A Fall For Me” a song that sounds more like Tricky – than Tricky himself has done for years.
Skip forward to the Brian Eno produced “Digital Lion” where James Blake does a track that sounds like a update on Björks “Hyper Ballad” mixed with Plastikmans “Spastik”.
If you want to dance, the club-friendly beats of french sounding song titled “Voyeur” is the track to seek. And when he let the beats pump out of the stereo for the last minute it´s almost like James Blake asks for the track to be included on a DJ-mix album. I would love to hear someone do a fat clubmix of this track!
Have you noticed war siren sound on several of the tracks? It seems to be part of a concept on this album. The sound is incorporeted at the end of a majority of the tracks: The one finger push on one button on the synth, and held down/looped and/or timestreched for the next minute or so. Until the end of the song (see i.e. “Retrograde” for a perfect example). If there is a soundconcept on the album, this sound is!
James Blake Overgrown Rare
James Blakes Top 5 most popular songs according to Spotify is
- “Retrograde” off “Overgrown” album,
- “Limit To Your Love” the beautiful Feist cover from “James Blake”
- “CMYK”
- “A Case Of You” his wonderful version of the Joni Mitchell classic
- “The Willhelm Scream” off James Blake
You can listen to “James Blake” and “Overgrown” here, if you use Spotify If you want to buy the albums, click here to download through iTunes
If his two cover versions of “Limit To Your Love” and “A Case Of You” is what you love about James Blake and is the sounds you love from him. I promise you you would love the whole “Overgrown” album. Some reviewers has called the album to slow, and if i should agree with that I would say the album is a slowburner. But let it sink in. It comes to you slowly – and when it hits you – you´re stuck!