Joshua Stephenson - 2/9/2011

James Blake's debut comes after a year of building hype with some astonishing EP releases; the jazz-dub styling's of CMYK and the piano driven Klavierwerke. Both showed off Blake's ability to cross in the best elements of dubstep with his classical training and on his debut everything comes together to make one of the first great releases of 2011.

The lead single that prompted much of the hype 'Limit To Your Love' has lost none of its impact here, a cover of a song by Feist, it starts with a simple piano score which Blake slowly croons over, but gradually adds gentle electronic sounds over a infectious snare line interspersed with periods of eerie silence. It is a truly great lead single, but it is the album openers that really set the tone of the album. 'Unluck' starts off slowly Blake's voice cracking over periods of silence mixed with an infectious beat, but build towards an electronic epic swamping Blake's vocal underneath it. While 'The Wilhelm Scream' is a shoe-in for the next single, Blake softly singing, "I'm falling, falling, falling. Might as well fall in" it's a gentle song with simple electronics buzzing around it and it is staggeringly beautiful.

In fact simplicity is the key ingredient to this album. Many songs feature just one repeating line, but Blake has the ability to make no element of the song feel unnecessary. Every electronic bleep, every snare rhythm and every period of silence feels essential and gives the album a sparse, over-worldly feel to it. This is epitomised on album closer 'Measurements' which consists of Blake's multi-layered vocals repeating over minimalistic bass notes and long periods of silence singing "Crease your pride, telling lies, that you're not on your own".

There are certainly issues with Blake's debut though, songs like 'Give Me My Month' and ' Why Don't You Call Me?', although pleasant, come and go quickly without making too much of an impact and feel underdeveloped. Also Blake's songwriting can leave a little to be desired with basic, nonsensical at times, lyrics that fit well with the tone of the album, but will have to improve if Blake is to continue his development as an artist.

Ultimately Blake's debut is a difficult album to get into with only the Bon Iver esque 'Lindisfarne I + II' offering any easy access, but if given time all the tiny facets of the album begin to open themselves up to you and it becomes an essential listen. So turn down the lights, stick some headphones on and let yourself be immersed in the soothing sounds that Blake has crafted.