Britain’s James Blake emerged in 2011 as a part of the country’s burgeoning EDM scene. With his wobbly R&B croon and an undeniable knack for production, Blake crafted a near-brilliant album in James Blake and found himself on all sorts of yearly best of lists. James Blake’s most exhilarating moments presented a virtually unclassifiable blend of soul, electronica and, most notably, bass. Lots and lots of bass.
But what became a major gift to journalists struggling to pin him down, Blake’s rib-rattling penchant for lower frequencies is merely one aspect of a broader brilliance — Blake’s ability to produce and arrange in ways unprecedented. While James Blake had no shortage of remarkable ideas, the album had only a handful of tracks that could be considered conventional “songs.” Coincidentally, or perhaps not, two were covers (“Limit to Your Love” and “The Wilhelm Scream”).
In what’s ostensibly a reaction to his debut, Blake’s Overgrown finds him searching for validation as a songwriter. The album, released last month, is chock full of sensitive musing and more developed ideas… or at least what Blake considers those to be. The title track and opener, “Overgrown,” does a good job setting a theme heard throughout the record: forlorn, ambitious self-exploration. Over skittering drums and piano, Blake laments the fleeting role of a musician in today’s overgrown, oversaturated world where “time passes in the constant state.”
Though Blake’s attempts to reveal himself are occasionally fruitful (“Life Round Here,” “To the Last”), Overgrown‘s ballads are some of its weakest moments. In fact, Blake himself gives a succinct description of the album’s greatest paradox on the underwhelming “I Am Sold,” saying, “we lay nocturnal, speculating what we feel.” Blake’s confessedly inscrutable mind is not made for ballads, and the resulting attempts come off as distant and meandering.
Though Overgrown is bogged down by Blake’s detached abstractions, it has its moments of greatness. “Retrograde”, which is undoubtedly his best work yet, finds the mature sound Blake seeks and shows that he is indeed capable, albeit infrequently, of communicating effectively. As Blake shrieks, “suddenly I’m hit!” over swelling synths, his goosebump-inducing production talents are impossible to resist. Another highlight, “Voyeur,” is a throwback to Blake’s dancehall days, with an unrelenting minor key groove and vocal loop.
Overgrown ends up being one of the most frustrating records of the year. While Blake’s brilliance is incontestable, his inscrutable self-exploration ends up burdening Overgrown‘s finer moments. All in all, the record, like much of today’s hyper self-absorbed indie music, is easy to admire but hard to love.
Overgrown