James Blake: Enough Thunder EP - Album Review

James Blake
Enough Thunder EP
Rating: Meh

Critics darling James Blake has steadily been releasing his take on dubstep over the last few years, sometimes to great effect (specifically his brilliant early EPs, The Bells Sketch and CMYK) and sometimes to puzzling ones (the murky Klaiverwerke EP and his rather lackluster debut album). In between those releases Blake fancied himself as a singer-songwriter, and while Blake possesses a fabulous voice, it is not well suited to his more experimental music found on the initial EPs. Aside from his lovely cover of Feist's "Limit To Your Love" and a couple of bass heavy tracks on the debut, it all sounded so muted, and quite frankly, pedestrian. Furthermore, in recent interviews Blake has been seemingly distancing himself from the dubstep genre, quite frankly making, in my opinion, very immature comments about the more commercially successful dubstep artists (such as Skrillex and Bassnectar), implying that someone it is inferior to more insular dubstep from him and acts like Burial and Mount Kimbie. It has all soured me a little on him, and what was once a promising future is looking less and less so. I have no trouble with an artist wanting to do what they want. I would rather him make music that thrills and inspires him, than just getting more and more tracks that he thinks fans want to hear. However, if he is going to pursue the singer-songwriter path, he at least should make it interesting.

Enough Thunder, his latest EP, is possibly a step forward in the right direction, putting together a mix of more experimental tracks with the vocal/minimal tracks he has been preferring lately. But still, when he chooses to perform tracks in a more minimal way, it draws too much attention to the fact that the tracks are bland. What made his cover of Feist's "Limit To Your Love" so great was the deep, wobbly bass rumble, when changed and morphed the song into something different and exciting. The lone cover here, Joni Mitchell's "A Case Of You," merely takes the guitar of the original and replaces it with piano. There is no surprise here, just a competent, serviceable cover you can hear at any piano bar.



This simplicity travels over to two other tracks on the EP. Closer "Enough Thunder," is practically a carbon copy of "A Case Of You," except in this instance the vocals are so clouded it is almost impossible to make out any of the lyrics.



And his eagerly anticipated collaboration with Bon Iver is also lacking. "Fall Creek Boys' Choir" suffers from taking two distinctive voices and over processing them to the point of lunacy, then adding a pedestrian late 80s drum machine beat at the end.



These missteps lessen the potential of the other three tracks, which really focus on Blake's strengths, the use of silence and disjointed electronic noises. The warped organs and whale sounding drones of "Not Long Now" feel like they are heading back into the murk of his traditional tracks, then at the mid-point of the track he adds a hissing drum loop which dives into a deep sub-bass and clanging percussion, elevating the track into something special.



Opener "Once We All Agree" takes icy piano chords and muted, wobbly bass to blanket Blake's plaintive wail. The track adds tension by spacing out the notes before the air raid siren drones take over the end of the track, and the bass becomes more and more distorted.



"We Might Feel Unsound" travels back to his CMYK days, grafting manipulated vocal samples to clipped beats, and really shows that this should be the direction he follows. Of course, I have a distinct feeling based on this EP and his recent interviews that he is moving more towards being the singer-songwriter outright, forsaking the genre that he initially favored. Blake is far too talented to write off completely, but by not focusing on his strengths he does himself a huge disservice. I am hoping his next full-length will prove me wrong, and he shows me that he is capable of making brilliant, inventive music again.

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.