James Blake and his singer-songwriter dubstep (or minamal electro if you want to start arguing genre-fiction) could have only come from England. He's an astute music student concerned with the details, knows his history and like a lot of English ancestors, is a white kid trying to be soulful. And like his most successful predecessors, he pulls it off so completely, I can't help but want to applaud when his debut record James Blake reaches its finale.
To be clear, the dude can fucking sing. "Give Me My Mouth" reads like Bill Withers on a Sunday. On "Measurements" Blake tuns into an entire gospel choir. If your tempted to chuckle, just wait till you get the lump in your throat.
Elsewhere on the self-titled record, Blake decided that instead of sampling the bins of East London record shops like on his much buzzed about eps last year, he'd chop up his own voice to more immediate effect. "Willhems Scream," is decidedly epic and distills everything you need to know about the guy into a simple calling card. "I Never Learnt To Share," my favorite track, ups the ante, a schizophrenic a capella jam that explodes into dirty dance-floor beat you could hear across the street as you wait at a kebab stand at 2am in London on a Saturday night.
Blake's made the mistake of making a great debut. Will he pillage more dubstep beats and focus more on sampling next time around? Will he strip it all away and focus on tuneful soul ballads? James Blake offers us a world of opportunity, but what a world to revel in, for now.
Listen:
James Blake-"I Never Learnt To Share"
Look:
James Blake official site
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