The Colour In Anything
James Blake
Polydor
Three stars
Blake’s albums have always walked a line between austere and piano-led minimalism and experimental electronic artistry with innovative urges. Here, Blake is firmly in the former, singer-songwriter mode.
His idiosyncratic, electronically edited instrumentation and willingness to strip away at songs are both in ample evidence. But they are put to work on an album filled with mostly slow songs about the frustrations of romance.
In his debut self-titled LP, Blake was filled with ideas. Songs lapsed into electronic incoherence, or changed into unrecognisably different dance tracks by their end. Here, as on Overgrown, the radicalism of his first album has hardened into something more conventional.
Meet You in the Maze and I Need a Forest Fire are standout tracks, both co-written with Justin Vernon – aka Bon Iver – and veering into Imogen Heap-type territory, as heavy editing turns Blake's voice into an affecting digital choir. Other tracks, though, run the risk of becoming little more than a production style failing to deliver the vibrant, urgent and novel ideas he once promised.
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
