James Blake (2022)

One Liner:  Falsetto-singing, glitchy-electronic R&B Brit

Wikipedia Genre:  Electronic, R&B, UK bass, soul, post-dubstep
Home: London

Poster Position: 3  (third line?!?!) (I said the same thing in 2019!)
Weekend One Only.  Friday.

Thoughts:   I'm in a weird vortex here - the last several people I have looked at were all here in 2019 as well.  Did they just forget to change the top few lines of the poster while re-using the one from 2019 to build this year's lineup?  

Wait, how is this guy connected to "King's Dead"?  That track is nails tough - but I thought it was Kendrick, Jay Rock, and Future - how is that track listed as this guy's number one track on Spotify?  Huh, he won a Grammy when that track won 2019's Best Rap Performance award.  Wait, is it just that one little five second smeary vocal in the transition?  491 million streams (but because it's freaking Kendrick and Future!)

Go to 2:25 for the four seconds that somehow scored James Blake a freaking Grammy.  That is kind of funny.  His fourth-most-streamed track is also from the Black Panther soundtrack ("Bloody Waters," with 75.4 million streams).

His actual songs are more of an electronic, alternative R&B sound - his falsetto singing over the top of quirky beats and harmonies.  I reviewed one of his albums previously - 2016's The Colour in Anything - and I called it generally forgettable.  I think that is still true for me right now.  Kind of a combination between Sam Smith (but without the powerful pipes), D'Angelo (but without the best grooves), and Disclosure (but without the dance floor).  That 2016 album is brooding electronica R&B - 17 songs of downtempo, weird beats and falsetto singing, like Bon Iver b-sides created on an older Mac.  The most listened to track from the album (and the best one) is "I Need a Forest Fire," with 65.1 million streams as of right now.

So much Bon Iver influence in there.  Starts like the sun is coming up over a mist-shrouded lake in the woods, and then all the Auto-tune descends over a strange, simple sample and beat.  Like the rest of the album, it is pretty enough, but overall forgettable.  

The dude is a classically trained musician from London, who not only makes his own music but has worked as producer for a bunch of big names like Kendrick Lamar and Beyonce.  He actually turned in one of his first EPs for a composition assignment at university, which is a pretty dope move.  His albums have all been critical darlings, but at first he was heavy into shorter EPs.  The first song that really caught the public eye was one called "CMYK," which has been overshadowed by his prior work - the Spotify version has only 7.5 million streams.

Huh, yeah, that is a very different sound - much more electronic, much less R&B-focused.  Definitely a different sound than his stuff on albums.

His first real album was 2011's self-titled debut, which showed his shift from that true electronic stuff into an R&B-focused, but still electronics, but now adding a lot of piano.  The hit from that album is "Limit to Your Love," with 58.4 million streams, and a pretty good baby-making groove under his effects-laden voice.

Like many of these songs, I guess they are pretty good?  I mean, many of them are pretty, kind of tender and longing, but I can't imagine wanting to see if performed at a festival.  It is like a weird mix of him being elegant - playing piano, falsetto, pretty vocals - and then being dubstep electronic - glitchy clicks and spacey synth runs.

Before his second album, 2012's Overgrown, Blake spent a lot of time with Kanye (who called Blake his favorite artist at the time) and his music shifted even further into the alt. R&B/ soul type tunes.  That album won the 2013 Mercury Prize and even more critical love.  2014 nomination for Best New Artist from the Grammys as well.  Right about now, as his 2016 album (discussed above) was coming out, he was appearing on Beyonce's Lemonade and Jay-Z's 4:44 - so the dude is apparently the bridge that helped those two keep from murdering each other and just turning their sadness into song.

A good anecdote: "In an interview with Spotify, Blake revealed that a day prior to the release of Drake's single "0 to 100 / The Catch Up", he received a email asking whether a beat from one of his older tracks could be used on the single; he refused and asked Drake's label to remove the sample. Blake's publisher later approached him and asked him about his decision. Blake in return asked how much money he had lost by turning down the offer and reportedly spat out his drink when he found out."

In 2019 he released Assume Form.  Sticks to the electro R&B form, but also includes a few solid cameos from Andre 3000 (great), Travis Scott (actually better than expected), and fellow ACL 2019 artist Rosalia.  But other than the joy of hearing Andre Three Stacks rapping again, the album is pretty forgettable.  Songs like "Mulholland" get actively annoying to me, with the bleating kind of wordless singing in the end, after a relatively boring track otherwise.  He does a lot of that, like you can also look at "Lullaby for My Insomniac" where he just pushes wordless notes over and over in an arrangement like a glee choir of the damned.  But I will readily admit that the tracks with the raps on them are the best of all of these - in addition to the two I already mentioned, one has Moses Sumney and Metro Boomin and is pretty funky.  But the most popular is the one with Scott on it - here is "Mile High" with 114.2 million streams.

Wait, is Travis like 5'4", or is Blake 6'6"?  Stupid video though.  I like the semi-bland beat, just wish Travis Scott could do something more with his verses.  Freaking "ocean water kinda deep" are the kind of bars that should get him deleted.  Instead, his star continues to rise.  I like the vibe of the song more than anything else.

In 2021 he released Friends that Break Your Heart.  It's most popular track is with fellow ACL poster-friend SZA.  "Coming Back" has just over 21 million streams.

You know, really pretty singing voice and all, but just a deeply boring song.  When it was over, do you even remember what the beat sounded like?  I will say that the Sza part is better than the part he sang.  But meh all over that thing.  

And his newest album is called Wind Down, and its just all very soft and quiet instrumental meanderings that sound like a cat accidentally sat on the keyboard and Blake just looped it to get out of the final album of his contract with his label.  The "10th Soundscape" might actually just be silence for all I can tell.  if there are sounds there, they are quieter than the air conditioning.  Huh - here is the reason - "which was made with the intention of aiding and supporting healthy sleep.  The record is the first functional music album constructed using AI technology to be released by a label within the Universal Music Group."  Well, I'll tell you what, it sucks!

If he would avoid the annoying songs, a lot of this would actually be really nice ambient music to play in the background of my work day.  But since some of it jacks my ears up, that isn't going to happen.  I will not be joining you for this show.