James Blake - Assume Form

currently taking a listen the album, first track 'assume form' is quite lush. the second track 'mile high' with "metro boomin" and "travis scott" i thought would be annoying but it is low key enough to be cool. third track 'tell them' is very neat and features moses sumney and reminds me of massive attack for some reason. fourth track is boring and typical. fifth one 'barefoot in the park' is legit and has some spanish chick singing all passionate like, the melody is very spanish sounding. i know this because i lived in spain for a lil bit so i can tell whether a melody is spanish. sixth track 'can't believe the way we flow' sounds like a doo-wop-trap ballad, pleasing, classic james blake style layered processed vocal harmonies and stuff. 7th track 'are you in love' is quite nice, very pleasing chord progression that sounds romantic and lovely. 8th track 'where's the catch?' apparently features André 3000 which is surprising as i remember reading in the newspaper that he died in a tragic menswear explosion back in 2006. must be that mandela effect people are talking about. this track is "okay". in the middle of the track it sounds like suddenly a girl was in the room? wtf and then they all just keep repeating "everything is rose". i think this track maybe is secretly evil or something. i would keep an eye out for tricks while listening to it. 9th track 'i'll come too' is another doo-wop-trap song and he gets kind of nasal and nerdy sounding at times. idk if he is taking the piss a lil bit here. he sounds like he is driving a brand new 1928 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan in the new hampshire countryside whilst wearing a top hat. tenth song 'power on' is pleasant enough but pretty corny imo, sounds a bit paint-by-numbers for him. he drops into a baritone and plays da piano in the end of the song and there is a children's melody. eleventh track 'don't miss it' has a wobbly piano tape and one of those ghosts from luigi's mansion singing real high pitched. then he employs glitchy stereo spread sped up voice james blake, he sounds like serpentwithfeet here but the difference is that serpentwithfeet can do that super fast vibrato thing without speeding up the recording. lush tremolo piano comes in and luigi's ghost takes out the song. inspiring. 12th song 'lullaby for my insomniac' — i cant tell you what this track is like because i fell asleep immediately. effective.

good album 10 phil collins out of 10 rick astleys

Oh dear. 

Can't wait for Alcofribas review of your review, nice

  On 1/18/2019 at 2:53 AM, Salvatorin said:

8th track 'where's the catch?' apparently features André 3000 which is surprising as i remember reading in the newspaper that he died in a tragic menswear explosion back in 2006. must be that mandela effect people are talking about. 

lol. nice review. 

i just hope it's as awesome as your review but i doubt it

  On 1/18/2019 at 1:53 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

i just hope it's as awesome as your review but i doubt it

  On 1/18/2019 at 1:53 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

i just hope it's as awesome as your review but i doubt it

It's not, but it's better than his previous one. He started to lose me with his second full-length which still had some bangers, but the third one ... yawn. This one sounds like a Christmas album which is not necessarily bad. Nice melodies, big chords, clear and tasty production. Still, something's missing which I think is the product of James never shutting the f up anymore. When he made instrumental music it was BANGING, but now that he abandoned this side of his creativity, his arrangements started to lack. Everything is based on his voice which doesn't hold up for the whole album. 3/5

You're generous.  I'd give this 1 or 2/5.  I actually sucks.

I didn't need to hear james blake trying to fake an andalusian accent

  On 1/19/2019 at 12:04 AM, span said:

I didn't need to hear james blake trying to fake an andalusian accent

lol right

it’s not very good. will never listen to it again.

did you enjoy overgrown? i feel like this is a return to form, sort of, for him.

That James Blake is not aware of his own cringeworthiness is itself cringeworthy, Phil Collins, meet David Brent

And yet he's capable of making bangers like 200 press

*blames jake*

James Blake kinda peaked before his debut full-length imo, first few EPs and the split with Airhead were great and then... meh. I like his older dubsteppy stuff a LOT more than his recent stuff. That "if the car behind you moves ahead" track was garbage, and I can't expect this is any better.

I miss this sound:

Move to L.A and put fucking Travis Scott on your shit and it'll be instantly awesome. Get back to the wonk bangers James. 

come on you guys are making bad faith arguments. james blake became a vocal thing after he started doing vocal stuff and people responded to it. i think he has carved out a unique sound and approach to songwriting. this album is pretty good. nobody is checking out a james blake album expecting wonk bangers anymore bluds

and he is so very phil collins

  On 1/19/2019 at 3:52 AM, Salvatorin said:

did you enjoy overgrown? i feel like this is a return to form, sort of, for him.

Not at all.  S/T > Colour... > Overgrown > Assume Form.

"If the car beside you..." had so much promise. He literally dropped the ball.  Sometimes there's albums where I'm meh and then it grows on me and I eventually love it. (latest meWithOutYou).  This is definitely NOT one of them.

"if the car beside you..." was great, this is seriously meh.

  On 1/19/2019 at 9:20 AM, Salvatorin said:

come on you guys are making bad faith arguments. james blake became a vocal thing after he started doing vocal stuff and people responded to it. i think he has carved out a unique sound and approach to songwriting. this album is pretty good. 

Gotta agree. Listened a few times this weekend, definitely like some songs more than others but it's a solid front to back listen. His voice and some of the ways he processes it are quite strange and original. Great ear for melody too, and the arrangements are really cool. In the redbull music academy interview with Brian Eno, Eno talks about working with James Blake, how his process involves removing as many elements and tracks as possible from a song while maintaining interest, and the sparse arrangements are really appealing to me anyways. By the way, anyone notice that he talks about driving from 'zone to zone' on 'I'll Come To'? Why zone? Interesting word choice. 

  On 1/19/2019 at 2:00 PM, gl0tch said:

 

  On 1/19/2019 at 3:52 AM, Salvatorin said:

did you enjoy overgrown? i feel like this is a return to form, sort of, for him.

Not at all. S/T > Colour... > Overgrown > Assume Form.

 

"If the car beside you..." had so much promise. He literally dropped the ball. Sometimes there's albums where I'm meh and then it grows on me and I eventually love it. (latest meWithOutYou). This is definitely NOT one of them.

James Blake, on t'other hand, is garbo. he did a good job on Age Of, though, so fair play for that.

  On 1/19/2019 at 2:00 PM, gl0tch said:

He literally dropped the ball.

nice imagery

The hefty but subtley mixed samples in "Can't Believe The Way We Flow" and "I'll Come Too" remind me a lot of Jamie XX's production methods of late, especially on the most recent XX album. Take a vocal phrase and use it as a springboard for completely new melodies and lyrics. Some hip-hop producers have done this trick in the past, Dilla especially comes to mind.

I enjoyed the brevity and cohesiveness of this album overall, part of me wished it was a bit more experimental and/or unusual in terms of production and rhythms (like his older EPs and Harmonix side project releases) but this still bucks a lot of the temptations most of his peers would succumb to in terms of swinging towards full-blown pop tropes. 

  On 1/20/2019 at 9:47 AM, Drum Up said:

 

  On 1/19/2019 at 9:20 AM, Salvatorin said:

come on you guys are making bad faith arguments. james blake became a vocal thing after he started doing vocal stuff and people responded to it. i think he has carved out a unique sound and approach to songwriting. this album is pretty good. 

 

Gotta agree. Listened a few times this weekend, definitely like some songs more than others but it's a solid front to back listen. His voice and some of the ways he processes it are quite strange and original. Great ear for melody too, and the arrangements are really cool. In the redbull music academy interview with Brian Eno, Eno talks about working with James Blake, how his process involves removing as many elements and tracks as possible from a song while maintaining interest, and the sparse arrangements are really appealing to me anyways. By the way, anyone notice that he talks about driving from 'zone to zone' on 'I'll Come To'? Why zone? Interesting word choice. 

 

He ruined the OPN album with this approach. 

  On 1/22/2019 at 4:35 PM, rddm said:

He ruined the OPN album with this approach.

What did it sound like before?