{"id":6496,"date":"2019-01-24T20:51:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T01:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=6496"},"modified":"2019-01-24T20:51:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T01:51:22","slug":"review-james-blake-assume-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/24\/review-james-blake-assume-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: James Blake &#8211; Assume Form"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>Hey, welcome to the new year of 2019. I&#8217;m still writing album reviews here, and what better way to start the year than by writing about the new album from&#8230; James Blake? In case the name escapes you&#8230;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For those not in the know, James Blake is an English singer, songwriter and producer. He was involved in many projects in 2018, from the <em>Black\u00a0Panther\u00a0<\/em>soundtrack (&#8220;King&#8217;s Dead&#8221; and &#8220;Bloody Waters&#8221;) to Travis Scott&#8217;s latest record <em>Astroworld,<\/em> and even providing additional production for Oneohtrix Point Never&#8217;s recent album (and my 2nd favorite album of 2018) <em>Age\u00a0Of.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I admit that while I have never listened to any of his solo records, I&#8217;m aware he has worked with plenty of other artists (especially in the vein of hip-hop) such as Beyonce, Frank Ocean, and Jay-Z among others. Going into his 4th studio album, <em>Assume\u00a0Form<\/em>, I learned that he has this ethereal and ambient sound in his music, whether it&#8217;s in his voice or through his production.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, can we assume that <em>Assume\u00a0Form<\/em> is worth listening to?<\/p>\r\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aEEVki6ofwc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p>Apparently, most people weren&#8217;t feeling his previous two albums, but having coming into this with fresh ears, I will say that he does have a good ear for production, ranging from ambient and eerie atmospheres to its more hip-hop sounds. Speaking of that, while Blake obviously provides the production, he gets Metro Boomin&#8217; on two tracks: &#8220;Mile High&#8221; (feat. Travis Scott) and &#8220;Tell Them&#8221; (feat. Moses Sumney). While the former track has been hyped around as a big single, I much preferred the latter as Moses Sumney made it sound better. As much as I may consider myself someone who likes Travis Scott&#8217;s work, his collaboration didn&#8217;t hit me that much along with the production being a bit weak, feeling like something that would&#8217;ve been on <em>Astroworld.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>I&#8217;m just going to get this out of the way now: of course, the track I love the most on here is the one featuring Andre 3000. Yes, he returns to make another guest verse on the track &#8220;Where&#8217;s the Catch,&#8221; and the production is where things really shine with its usage of piano, vocal effects, a scratchy guitar sound, hi-hats and vocal delivery.<\/p>\r\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ug_5d1HD9FA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p>Other tracks that I really grabbed onto are the opening title track, &#8220;Into the Red&#8221;, &#8220;Are You in Love?&#8221;, &#8220;Don&#8217;t Miss It,&#8221; &amp; the closing track &#8220;Lullaby for My Insomniac.&#8221; All of them have this experimental yet ambient sound that I am definitely into, but with that style, I can sometimes forget about a song or two in there. To be fair, I don&#8217;t find any tracks to be bad, but there are ones I can gloss over, like &#8220;Barefoot in the Park&#8221; with Rosal\u00eda (it&#8217;s good, but I would listen to the other tracks I listed more). In my ears, &#8220;Lullaby for My Insomniac&#8221; has the best progression of any song with Blake&#8217;s choral vocalization being hauntingly excellent.<\/p>\r\n<p>So, with that said, this album took some time to me to grasp what Blake can deliver, and I do see myself going back to his catalog. <em>Assume Form<\/em> isn&#8217;t a bad way to start with his solo work, as it&#8217;s very accessible to newcomers. A nice blend of ambient sounds, electropop vibes, and trap sounds, it&#8217;s very much worth looking into.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><em><strong>FINAL VERDICT:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong><em>Stream It.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><em>It&#8217;s a damn good listen.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aEEVki6ofwc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><em><strong>Assume Form is available on Polydor Records on CD, streaming, digital download and cassette (no, really, it&#8217;s on that format).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&nbsp; Hey, welcome to the new year of 2019. I&#8217;m still writing album reviews here, and what better way to start the year \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/24\/review-james-blake-assume-form\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","yasr_overall_rating":3.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[1066,1280,949,1281,1279,1282,294,18,846],"class_list":["post-6496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-album","tag-assume-form","tag-electronica","tag-electropop","tag-james-blake","tag-polydor-records","tag-rb","tag-review","tag-trap"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-1GM","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/download.jpg?fit=225%2C225&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6496"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6520,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions\/6520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}