James Blake is the new Phil Collins

''Get with the times buddy''

Classic American phrase lol. Nice one.

i like it

i think i like the bbc maida vale take on wilhelm scream a bit more though, the guitar is higher in the mix and there's more shrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeddddin' to be had.

best album 2011 by a long shot.

James Blake ain't the new Phil Collins because he's not me.

James Blake's LP rules 2011. Not so much in terms of songwriting (he manages to get away with only one idea per song) but regarding production, he just managed to push the "pop" sound into new realms. In this sense I believe this album is quite groundbreaking. I'm really glad he got out of that lame dead-end genre that is dubstep. I hate the hype surrounding this record, but I can't help falling in love with it.

I bought it for my girlfriend the other day and I've had two proper listens so far and all I can say is that it really doesn't live up to its immense hype - not that anything does these days. It sounds like he was that young saviour-like figure coming to save pop and popular music by, as mentioned above, pushing pop into new realms, but really, all we'll see it just people trying to get on with this style of music and suddenly it'll all be monotonic shit again. I quite like it, but not an amazing record. And not a genius record at all. Not at all.

I don't think he ever made a dubstep record. but making tracks at 140bpm probably got him played by a lot of DJs

i mind, banging track, the album is pretty enjoyable, need to listen to it some more, the hype around it is amazing, no record can live up to it, the record also isn't also exciting (not a bad thing) enough to live up to it.

a guy i know said this about it, made me laff:

"Jame Blake's one style of crapstep sanitised for middle class dinner parties"

  On 2/9/2011 at 10:41 AM, jules said:

also, pitchfork gave his new record a 9.0 so...

you think the album sucks, right? and you're stating that pitchfork gave it a high rating. so...that makes me think you believe that if a record is well received by pitchfork then it can't possibly be good. which is stupid.

that's not true at all man. I was alluding to the hype machine as someone already said in this thread that pitchfork was going to love this. their ratings and my personal opinions have fuck all to do with each other. I promise.

I can't really figure anything meaningful to say about the LP or any of the EPs other than that I give the EPs an 8.0/10 and the LP a 7.5/10. I've been trying to express why I'm not all that enthusiastic over any of this, while still seeing it as quite good.

I guess I still just don't really care for this brand of music. And if you're going to say, "it's not really dubstep" or any of that, I have to disagree. The "dubstep" brand is a blanket term and this style (CMYK, clicks, cool and stretched, pitched) fits well enough. It breaks the genre in many ways, however it's clearly not original to the point where you could say it's "obviously not dubstep it's its own thing!" I'm talking about the LP as well, which seems to blend a unique style of "micro?dubstep" with soulful R+B. How much more muggle friendly can electronic music get? It's not a problem... I'm just saying...

For me, Demdike Stare is the kind of "dubstep" (or as "dubstep" means to me - slightly watered down electronic not-quite-art music that doesn't take as many chances as some but still has potential and sounds very cool in your car and at the club) that is capable of making me excited. To me it sounds like a couple of innovative fuckers a la Plaid or Autechre starting their musical journey off with a bang. Now those are some cats I could potentially invest hope in. Originality and the skill of pulling it off.. The Blake EPs approach that level as well.. it might be that they sound a bit too derivative for my elite tastes.

So anyway, the Blake is pretty good but there's way too much other music for me to spend time on.

Obviously I had to check it out though, if only for the hype.

  On 2/14/2011 at 4:11 PM, Gocab said:

lol

what the........ are you kidding me!? that song is the reason I've been giving this LP the benefit of the doubt.

it's still an awesome song, definitely not a total ripoff. the production is half the point.

  On 2/14/2011 at 4:43 PM, xxx said:

I have never heard a single track from James Blake that could be called "dubstep" by any stretch of the imagination but garbage in/garbage out when it comes to the hype machine.

don't fuck me on this one

was kakapo's post designed to induce the chilling effect? i dont think it worked, maybe a little bit people are a little less harsh in tone after you said that, so maybe the chillin' was effective

  On 2/15/2011 at 5:44 AM, xxx said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ehllI7Jts

that is awful.

hmmmmm, not quite a cover but definitely lifts parts from the tune his dad produced. haven't we already been through this before with, oh i don't know, any one of a million different artists?

last one is a phil collins fan.

  On 2/15/2011 at 5:44 AM, xxx said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ehllI7Jts

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  On 2/14/2011 at 4:45 PM, vamos scorcho said:

  On 2/14/2011 at 4:11 PM, Gocab said:

lol

 

what the........ are you kidding me!? that song is the reason I've been giving this LP the benefit of the doubt.

 

 

it's still an awesome song, definitely not a total ripoff. the production is half the point.

 

 

It's his dad.

I always was a bit reminded of older (in age) Nick Cave while listening to James Blake...

Blames Jake

  On 2/21/2011 at 8:01 PM, patternoverlap said:

Blames Jake

Jeeves, Bloke.

i think watmm should have a contest where we all try to make a half-baked pop / fringe electronic music fusion act and see how quickly it gets labeled 'the new ____' by the hype machine

ok I've given this another shot. I have tried on multiple occasions and I've yet to find 1 single thing about this that isn't generic, derivative and boring as hell. for the record I can't stand burial either so maybe because it's virtually the same for me? I could never understand the burial love/hype either. at all. what am I missing?

  On 3/8/2011 at 8:08 AM, jules said:

what am I missing?

being british

Eh, I like some of it but I'll stick to his EPs I think. Curious what he'll do next.

also;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF4hEhAcSCw

http://www.holymoly.com/reviews/music/music-review-george-michael-true-faith-first-listen53903