After a few months of listening to James Blake's latest project 'Assume Form' I've found myself coming back to it rather often in the same way I find myself coming back to an album like 'Blond' by Frank Ocean and for rather similar reasons I'd be willing to say. This is my first review and I'm kind of just getting a feel for it so I'm going to start off with a track by track analysis and finish it off with my overall review of the album.
Track 1; Assume Form; I love this song. Straight up. But it's a beautiful mess. The track never decides what it wants to be, a ballad, a dark and eerie love song, even I'm not sure. The sample that plays roughly a minute into the song doesn't really add anything to the song contextually although I do think it sounds nice. The piano is really the highlight for me in this song along with the pitch James is able to achieve on the hook that sounds absolutely lush next to the piano chords that he plays underneath his singing. The secondary sample I love it adds a lot to the song sonically and to me sounds like children possibly singing or laughing. Overall a fantastic song but as I said previously, a beautiful mess.
Track 2; Mile High; I'll start off with talking about Travis Scott's feature. It's.. an odd one..? I'm not 100% sure how to put it. It's a weird contrast with James Blake's way of writing and Travis' but man do their voices sound good together. What I mean with their writing styles is well Travis is a rapper and not to stereotype or anything but he likes talking about stuff an artist like James wouldn't. Like when he says "ass fatter than a peach". I'd die of laughter if I heard James Blake say something like that, in the same way I'd die of laughter if I heard Travis say something like "Watch the fan as it spins, in my arms, wrapped in, don't know where you start, and where I begin, like I found myself an imaginary friend, and when we stay in, I'm missin' everything" but again they sound great together and ever since 'Stop Trying To Be God' off of Travis' album ASTROWORLD I'd been dying for another collaboration between the two. The instrumental doesn't do much for me and ends up being kind of drowned out by the two in the mix but allows for a decent platform for them to work on.
Track 3; Tell Them; The beat on this song sounds like a bit of a reject off of Metro Boomin's last project when you first hear the synths but ends up being quite a bit more complex as the song keeps on going when the producer really uses the production to bring the voices of James and feature Moses Sumney to life. I adore the hook on this song it sounds so vulnerable and is delivered perfectly by Moses and flows fantastically into James' verses. The message of getting whatever he has going on off his chest and "telling them" also hits quite close to home and provides a smooth repetition throughout the song.
Track 4; Into The Red; This is easily one of my favorite songs on the record everything from the grand orchestral instrumentation to the lyrics that James wrote for this made it an absolute joy to listen to and a song that remains on many of my playlists to this day. I've said pretty much all of it there it's beautiful top to bottom and has one of my favorite hooks so far this year 'She was the gold rush, She was the gold rush, She was the gold rush' runs in my head about twelve times a day in the exact voice and tone that James Blake uses to make this line so memorable.
Track 5; Barefoot In The Park; Wow. I must say that when I first heard this song it wasn't mind blowing, it sounded kind of run of the mill and just kind of a boring song. Probably because the first time I heard it was a Thursday night at 1 AM but let's not stay focused on that too long. Although I don't have a clue what Rosalia is saying because my two years of high school Spanish were kind of useless she has one of the best voices on the music scene right now. I wish I could get more into her music but I'm not great at doing that when it's in a foreign language especially when it's music that has a rather deep meaning because I do find myself listening to songs by acts such as the Higher Brothers who flow in and out of Chinese but never talk about anything more important than jewelry and clothing so it's quite easy to understand what they're getting at. The music video that accompanies the song gives it a whole new meaning as a callback to a childhood relationship between two people and is really quite a beautiful image.
Track 6; Can't Believe The Way We Flow; This song is an example of how a sample should be flipped, messed around with, slowed down, pitched up, distorted, you name it, James Blake did it with this sample. His voice is so fine tuned on this song he sounds angelic and makes the song a must listen. My only grudge with this song is the repetition of the title of the song, even though the sample says the same thing I don't get tired of it, but the amount James says it does get a little boring at some point given the lyrics aren't amazingly in depth and are a little surface level as a love song but it just sounds too damn good for me to be mad at it for those small reasons.
Track 7; Are You In Love; Short answer. Yes. The intro to this song is absolutely fantastic it's freakishly good and reminds me of a song I just cannot put my finger on but some kind of romantic disco song from the 80s mostly because of that synth, Jesus Christ that synth is gorgeous and I cannot be mad at how often the same chords get played over and over it gets better every time. James killed the production on this song which isn't surprising because he has producing credits for every song on this project. Although it's another love song it isn't even close to being sappy, the way James talks about this relationship is a tad bit sad given he's saying he's giving it his all and feels like none of it his being reciprocated but it keeps a kind of happy tone which is odd but also probably one of my favorite kinds of music encompassing songs such as 'Nobody' by Mitski and 'Feeling Lonely' by Boy Pablo to name a couple.
Track 8; Where's The Catch; This song has one of my favorite features recently from the ever elusive Andre 3000 of Outkast. Although I love rap and I think I'm somewhat decent at analyzing what metaphors mean here and there but this verse from three stacks has me dumbfounded, even after reading some information on Genius I'm still confused, but hell if it doesn't sound awesome, Andre's voice is just golden and even if I'm left looking like an idiot after listening to his verse I'd be fine with it. Other than that some more brilliant production from Blake and another great use of an obscure sample that kind of sounds like the second one used in the first song on this project.
Track 9; I'll Come Too; This song is perfect to me, even though it's yet ANOTHER love song and this one is WAY sappier than the others but hell if it isn't one of my favorites. There isn't much to deduce about this song it's pretty straight to the point he'd follow the woman he's talking about anywhere yada yada yada but for some reason it's so much more than that. His vocal inflexions make the song for me the way he pronounces "too" "do" "you" is different than in the other songs theres so much emphasis on them and it makes the song a lot of fun to listen to and yet again no surprise James kills it on the production.
Track 10; Power On; This one's a weird combination of motivational and sad and sadly it's not a song I find myself coming back to and that keeps up over the last three songs on this project although track 11 does have some aspects I enjoy about it. Although I am a fan of the instrumental that he sways over it just isn't enough to keep this song enjoyable for me.
Track 11; Don't Miss It; Although this song is a part of the last three songs on the project that are quite sleepy and a tad bit.. boring.. in my opinion that is. It's the best of the three and has some elements that stand out like the laid back piano and whatever sounds like a wolf howling I'm not sure how else I'd describe it that plays in the background of the song and that reminds me of the exact same kind of sound used on Kanye West's 'Wolves'. Those couple of things are the only things that save the song for me but again it's a bit boring especially when I compare it to some of my favorite songs on this project.
Track 12; Lullaby For My Insomniac; The title is fitting this song puts me to sleep maybe thats contextual because its the last song on the album but I don't think this song is really meant for any member of James Blake's fanbase it was written for his spouse and so maybe it has more emotional depth in that context, but outside of it I don't see any enjoyability in it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this album and to this day it holds a top 3 spot in my albums of the year hand in hand with 'Arizona Baby' by Kevin Abstract of BROCKHAMPTON fame and 'Social Cues' by Cage The Elephant. It has some highs some lows but is mostly a high during the 48 minutes of its runtime. James Blake has an ear for sampling I admire, obviously not on the level of someone like No-ID or Madlib but James knows how to use those samples to his advantage. Other than just sampling he is a fantastic producer and sure as hell knows his way around a piano and somehow finds a way to come up with beautiful new melodies on each one of his tracks. And of course I can't fly by his voice which is so smooth its unbelievable I could only wish to have a voice like that. Although it isn't my favorite of Blake's projects it's an extremely close second to 'The Colour In Anything' which still holds my number one spot when it comes to James. I give the album a solid 9/10 and recommend listening to it as soon as you can.