29 Apr Album Review: James Blake
James Blake received appreciation with the release of his series of EP’s CMYK and Klavierwerke. However, it wasn’t till his self-titled debut album “James Blake” when he got international recognition. The album was heavily influenced and exhibited his skills in electronic music. Since then he has collaborated with many musicians such as Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, and Frank Ocean. James Blake continues to rise to fame and break boundaries of how people perceive music and creates a new understanding of electronic music. This review will explore the artistry and meaning behind James Blake’s self-titled album James Blake.
James Blake’s debut album was a self-titled album, published in 2011. The album received a lot of recognition as well as positive criticism. In an article by Pitchfork, the album was criticised as being very diverse and different from Blake’s past releases. Blake even confessed how a majority of the vocals on this album were his, unlike his previous two EPs which used samples. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize along with other awards.
The genre of the album is electronic/pop and the songs on the album are different yet interconnected to each another. Many tracks from the album are heavily enhanced with the help of mixing and mastering which creates an entire computerised atmosphere. The first track on the album is “Unlucky“. it’s a dub-step song that explores different layers of vocals that have been processed with the help of auto-tune. The album proceeds to the next song “The Wilhelm Scream” which is a remake of his father’s song. It is a very quiet and soft song, however, this continues to change to a louder frequency to create a claustrophobic atmosphere.
The third song on the album is “I Never Learnt To Share“. The song is very different as there is just one particular phrase that keeps on repeating while there is a change in the instrumentation as we first just hear vocals then electric guitars and lush keyboards. After this, we experience a two-parter song titled “Lindisfarne“. The first part of the song is just acapella while we hear the instruments coming in the second part of the song. We can identify that Blake loves to experiment with different production techniques and skills, as a majority of his vocals are profoundly influenced by auto-tune.
Then we have a slow balled “Limit To Your Love“. It’s a minimalistic dubstep that just uses vocals, piano, and bass. Following this song is called “Give Me My Month” which is of similar style as it too is a slow ballad. The eighth track is called “To Care (Like You)” uses a lot of vocal effects to make the song impactful such as layers and pitch shifts. This then leads to “Why Don’t You Call Me” which is a slow song with only piano and voice. He slices up the song and decreases the volume from certain places and then increase them to grab the attention of the listener. In “I Mind“, he uses vocal loops to create a bass line. This explains how Blake uses his vocals to create different sounds with a little editing to them. The album concludes with “Measurements” where we can hear some repetition of the pop sound which is achieved through the use of synth.
In conclusion, James Blake’s debut album is quite unique as he uses sounds that aren’t particularly used to create
an impact and build an atmosphere. Much of his music uses vocals layers, pitches, pauses and etc. His album as received a lot of appreciation and attention as it’s very unconventional compared to the music that was being launched in the industry then. Additionally, the album was self-produced and was launched by James’ label, both in the UK and the USA.
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Naman Kasana is currently enrolled as a student in Professional Diploma – Contemporary Music Performance. Glee, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Billie Eilish – some of the works and people that inspire Naman and reinforced the identity of music in his life. On picking up this album for review, Naman says: “James’ style of music, to me stood out as unconventional and individualistic. The album is unique and quite different amongst its genre, electronic pop. My initial response was that it felt like something I had never heard of. The songs almost create an atmosphere of emotions and make you notice things you would otherwise never do . You will find yourself evaluating the sound, techniques and the style of music. This was the first album of his that I’ve heard and it surely won’t be the last.”
The above album review was submitted as a project for the Art of Listening elective. Led by Andrea Fraenzel, the elective focuses on the most important aspect of musical learning: listening! Each class has a pre-defined topic and the students listen to related pieces – no distraction, no mobile phones! The topics range from instruments to performances, artists, songs etc. and also adjusted to audience’ preference and taste. Every week one of the students co -hosts the session with Andrea.
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