If you didn’t know, James Blake is a musical genius. He re-imagines & re-defines music on every single song he makes.
James Blake reminds me of an artist I used to listen to when I was around 18-19 years old, up to no good & spending an unprecedented amount of time with my friends. The artist that I’m referring to is Burial, which you could argue is completely different to James Blake, yet I believe the minds behind both artists are very similar. Neither of them appear to look at the traditional formula of how to craft a song, especially with regards to all the typical instruments, tempo & sounds produced. In fact, some of their songs sound out of time & give off the impression it’s only a mixture of random noises, however, there is method to the madness & it’s an extremely rare/unique talent to possess.
Assume Form is everything I wanted in a new album from James Blake & more. There’s something about the introduction that left me contemplating about my life. This is no joke. Everytime I hear it, which sounds to me like impoverished children singing in unison (towards the middle/end), makes me ponder on the days that have gone & the days that have not yet come to pass. Call me crazy, but this is the effect of his music. It reaches out to me & connects with my soul.
Two features on Assume Form that took me by surprise was Travis Scott’s & Metro Boomin on ‘Mile High’. It’s awesome that both of those artists have been involved at one point or another & only re-iterates how respected the English musician from London really is. The song sounds great & was added to my ‘Easy’ playlist with immediate effect & shared via Watsapp to some of my closest friends.
The other feature that took me by surprise was with Andre 3000 from Outkast. Whenever I think of Outkast, all I think about are the lyrics ‘‘Roses really smell like poo-poo-oo’’. Those were the days! Just as I described the previous song, this is also a great track & is strangely addictive/catchy, with some punchy/meaningful lyrics from Andre 3000.
I’m not that clued up about Spanish & Latin American artists, but Rosalia is also on the project, which adds a completely different element when playing the album from start to finish. You could almost categorize the song as a pallet cleanser. As far as I’m aware, Rosalia is set to be a prominent pop star, if not one already, in some of her fan’s eyes & I like how different the song is in comparison with the rest.
One song, that doesn’t have a feature, but stands out to me as being particularly noteworthy, especially if you want James Blake on his own, is ‘I’ll Come Too’. It really is a special song & it wouldn’t surprise me if we hear this song on films, adverts etc. etc. I believe it’s everything that encapsulates James Blake’s music & it made it to my ‘Creme De La Creme’ playlist, which is no easy list to be added to, I can assure you. The level of quality on this list is reserved for such artists as George Michael, Michael Jackson, 2pac & Simply Red. Although, there are some artists who have made it to the list who have nowhere near the same notoriety as these, but the songs are ones which I could listen to over & over again, with no questions asked.
The entire Assume Form album is a hit for me. Not one song is a let down and/or is commercial/mainstream. It’s simply James Blake doing what he does best, which is expressing himself through the medium of music & in his own way, with the addition of some great artists next to him to give it that extra boost. There’s no telling what his mind will create next, so when I heard his new album was out, I typed in his name so fast into my Amazon Unlimited app, you would have thought he was giving away free money. Although, as great as free money would have been, the music that James Blake gives to us is better then that, in my opinion, because money may buy lots of things in this world, but it can’t buy you a feeling as organic as this can.
