![]() By the time the beat kicks in, the album is well on its way. The moans that open the record may not suggest much, but give it just a few seconds. If many of the same synth patches, sounds and vocal tricks we’ve come to expect from Blake are ever present here, the album is certainly not a redux of the debut. His style is truly singular and it’s one that Blake doesn’t intend to give up, at least not for his sophomore effort Overgrown. While the album found Blake approaching electronic music from more of the perspective of a balladeer than in the past, I found it to be a stirring, sometimes disorienting set of songs. Just to the record is set straight so there’s no confusion as to what side of the fence I sat on, I was clearly one of the former. Needless to say, his 2011 self-titled debut ended up being a fairly divisive record, impressing many while causing several others to throw up their hands with bewilderment regarding the buzz that surrounded it (indeed, there were differing opinions among the writers on this very site). This is, of course, an exaggeration, but there were some pretty heavy expectations for his first full-length and depending on who you ask, he either met them with ease or he fell far short. ![]() ![]() ![]() After his breakthrough CMYK and Klavierwerke EPs in 2010, it was almost as if the future of electronic music was resting on his shoulders. If James Blake emerged as one of the leading lights of the post-dubstep world in 20, his potential came with a price.
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