As Kingston gets ready to host London’s Grammy-nominated artist James Blake at Pryzm (SOLD OUT EVENT) on Thursday 28 April 2022 for a solo piano set before his UK and European Tour set to start in Glasgow on Saturday 30 April 2022.
We want to share our top ten list of his best songs out of his albums.
Multitalented producer, singer, and songwriter James Blake Litherland was born in London in 1988, he is the son of musician James Litherland who is known to be the founder of the English jazz-rock band Colosseum.
From a very young age, Blake was introduced to music particulary classical piano and also attended musical studies throughout his education receiving a degree in Popular Music at Goldsmith University.
James Blake’s approach to his music career started with electronic music, to be more specific the genre of dubstep which started gaining exposure in the mid-2000 inspired by artists such as Distance, Burial and Skream he then mixed it with the inspiration of R&B to release his first song Air & Lack Thereof in 2009, managing to enter Soul Jazz label’s compilation Steppas’ 2 Delight.
In his career, James Blake has collaborated with numerous Grammy-nominated artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Frank Ocean as a producer, songwriter and as featured singer.
He went on to release his first extended play in 2010 “The Bells Sketch” under the Hessle label and in the same year he also released “CMKY” and “Klavierwerke” for a total of eight EP’s to this day.
In 2011 he released his first album James Blake under the German-British music label Polydor which is part of UMG (Universal Music Group).
This album was nominated for the Mercury Prize in that same year and received multiple positive critical ratings from magazines such as Pitchfork, Spin, Q and newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and others.
James Blake the album contained tracks such as “Limit to Your Love” written by Feist and Chilly Gonzales, and “The Wilhelm Scream” of which his father was the co-writer.
In 2013 Overgrown Mercury Prize album winner was released with features from Brian Eno as a songwriter and Wu-Tang Clan legend RZA for the track “Take a Fall for Me” and “Retrograde” which were featured in many television shows such as The Leftovers, The Blacklist, Italian Netflix series Baby, Suits and others.
Overgrown like the first album received positive rankings as well and managed to enter into Year-end rankings to determine the best album of 2013 in multiple magazines such as third in Complex Magazine and second in Clash.
Three years later in 2016, James Blake released his third album The Colour in Anything featuring songs such as “My Willing Heart” which was written by Grammy winner musician Frank Ocean, “Radio Silence”, “Modern Soul” produced by legendary Rick Rubin who co-produced other seven tracks of the album and “I Need A Forest Fire” featuring Bon Iver.
The Colour in Anything debuted at the first spot on the US Top Dance/Electronic Albums on the weekly Billboard charts ending up still remaining in the top ten list by at end of the year.
After collaborating with Beyoncé in 2016 on her album Lemonade for the song Forward he started changing his sound adding hip-hop to his inspiration and working with big names such as Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z in 2017 and Travis Scott in 2018.
One year later, in 2019 he finally released his fourth album Assume Form which featured André 3000’s from the legendary Outkast duo in the song “Where’s the Catch?”, Travis Scott himself on “Mile High” produced by multi-platinum music producer Metro Boomin, “Barefoot in the Park” featuring Catalan artist Rosalía and “Can’t Believe The Way We Flow”.
In the case of James Blake, a new album equals a new bunch of positive reviews from newspapers and magazines such as The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and NME giving the album five stars out of five.
The only negative rating came from Pitchfork magazine which gave Assume Form 5.8 out of ten and the magazine’s journalist Philip Sherbourne said: “There’s a suffocating seriousness that runs through the singer and producer’s fourth album, one that bogs down genuine moments of levity and love.”
For the latest album Friends That Break Your Heart released in 2021, James Blake switches genres from the usual Electronic to Alternative but still keeps pieces of Electronic and R&B in certain parts.
The album features TDE (Top Dawg Entertainment) artist SZA for the song “Coming Back”, Dreamville artist JID and SwaVay for “Frozen”, a production by Metro Boomin in “Foot Forward”, and finally Monica Martin for the track “Show Me”.
NME journalist, Ella Kemp said: “There’s a self-awareness that romantic love so often carries this burden, while “nobody prepares you and nobody’s prepared” for the ways such pain can manifest elsewhere. It’s beautiful and uncomfortable stuff – it’s James Blake in his richest, rawest form, still and always shapeshifting to find fascinating new ways to heal.” Although it has been extremely difficult to decide on the top ten with Blake's amazing diverse discography here is our list of his top ten songs out of all his albums. NO.10
LIMIT TO YOUR LOVE
NO.9 MODERN SOUL
NO.8 WHERE'S THE CATCH ft. ANDRE 3000
NO.7 RADIO SILENCE
NO.6 SHOW ME ft. MONICA MARTIN
NO.5 COMING BACK ft. SZA
NO.4 CAN'T BELIEVE THE WAY WE FLOW
NO.3 SAY WHAT YOU WILL
NO.2 RETROGRADE
Before we share our favourite song of James Blake's incredible discography, here are some honourable mentions:
AND FINALLY, THE FIRST SPOT GOES TO... I NEED A FOREST FIRE ft. BON IVER
An incredible Masterpiece. The instrumental itself brings you a sense of melancholy with a mix of happiness and at the same time an amazing sensation of calmness that makes you feel like you are floating throughout the song. And those two beautiful voices from James Blake and Bon Iver. Speechless emotions.
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