The son of famed English session musician James Litherland (Leo Sayer) and a former Goldsmiths music student (a program known for producing some of the most successful English artists), 21-year-old electronic musician James Blake is the new hot buzz of 2011, having pushed his new name last year with an acclaimed trilogy of EPs that made their way around the hip ear circuits late in the year. Now, with his self-produced eponymous debut out on shelves, Blake has brought in even more listeners, thanks in part to the blog and web chatter his cover of Feist’s “Limit To Your Love” has seen since being released as a teaser last November.
Listing his genre as “post-dubstep” and citing the xx as his primary influence, Blake if one of the strangest new artists to see universal buzz in a good long while. He is, if nothing else, maybe the most modern indie-level musician in the years, sounding not only like the xx at times, but also taking quite a bit from Bon Iver, Antony and the Johnsons, Mount Kimbie, Jens Lekman and Bon Iver side project Volcano Choir – all very modern sounding indie acts. Using auto-tune on every song so much so that it’s a defining element of his sound, Blake has constructed oddball minimalist electro-pop songs that almost always feel mechanical and cold, only warming when Blake’s deep, simple piano chords kick in from time to time.
My first two listens confused me, to be honest. I insisted that this was an Antony side project, and that Antony had just slapped a picture of some handsome young man on the cover to deepen the myth of some new moniker he was using to grab some new ears. But, supposedly, this is truly not Antony singing, though I have no doubt that Blake himself would even admit the influence. The music, however, does not remind of Antony or Bon Iver, instead sometimes sounding like a offbeat, minimalist take on Mount Kimbie’s excellent 2010 record, Crooks & Lovers, even at times bringing to mind Fourtet’s recent record, There Is Love In You. But what makes Blake’s record so worthwhile – what makes it work at all – is how drop dead serious his youth allows him to take himself. This is, by far, one of the most dramatic and morose sounding records I’ve ever heard, even when it’s taking time to hint at dance floor rhythms.
“Limit To Your Love” is, for sure, one heck of a song. Blake breaks the mostly simple song into distinct sections, adding touches here and there that don’t seem probable, but somehow do fine as a complete work. Despite being a true minimalist composition that mostly relies on a keyboard, a voice and a mess of computer tinkering, the song is so drenched in ideas that it just might be the kind of song that people talk about and reference for years to come. Another standout track, “I Never Learnt To Share,” further displays Blake’s minimalist mastery, creating an argument that he is as much an Ideas Man-type producer as he is a young kid playing around on a computer with a bunch of hacked programs and – we have to assume – an at-least-somewhat-stellar voice.
Two weeks worth of listening, that’s what it took for me to admit to myself that there is in fact something special about this record. Does it deserve to be the best reviewed album from the first quarter of 2011? Hecks no it doesn’t; but James Blake does have a second generation Bon Iver appeal that makes it one of the Top 5 or so must-hear records so far of 2011. The real question is: will I be laughing at myself for standing up for this record come December, or will it continue to grow on me, and maybe even possibly go down as one of my very favorites of the year? That’s the rub … I really can’t begin to guess how this record will age – could go either way. No doubt about it, however, if you like forward-thinking music and don’t mind an excessive amount of auto-tuner action (and blips and ticks), give this record the few spins it takes to sink in.
83/100
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