James Blake (album)
| James Blake | ||||
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| Studio album by James Blake | ||||
| Released | 4 February 2011 10 October 2011 (Deluxe Edition) |
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| Recorded | 2009-2010 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 38:00 (Standard Edition) 43:07 (Deluxe Edition CD1) 25:31 (Deluxe Edition CD2: Enough Thunder EP) |
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| Label | ATLAS, A&M, Polydor | |||
| Producer | James Blake | |||
| James Blake chronology | ||||
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| Singles from James Blake | ||||
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| Singles from James Blake (Deluxe Edition) | ||||
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| Deluxe Edition | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 81/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The A.V. Club | A |
| The Daily Telegraph | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B |
| The Guardian | |
| NME | 6/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 9.0/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone |  |
| Spin | 8/10 |
James Blake is the debut studio album by London-based electronic music producer James Blake. It was released in both the United Kingdom and the United States on his own label, ATLAS, supported by A&M Records, on 4 February 2011. The release was supported with the release of its first single, "Limit to Your Love", on 28 November 2010.
The album was released to generally positive critical reception, and was nominated for the 2011 Mercury Prize. A deluxe edition was released on 10 October 2011 with different artwork and bundled with a second disc, Blake's new EP Enough Thunder, which was also released separately.
James Blake builds on the material released by Blake as three EPs in 2010: The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke. All three EPs have differing musical styles. Mike Powell of online music magazine Pitchfork noted it was "amazing" that so much material could be released in such a short period of time. However, despite the amount of music released by Blake in 2010, most of the material on his debut album is completely new.
In interviews about the album, Blake cited fellow Londoners the xx as an influence, telling Clash's Robin Murray their success with debut xx "made it a lot easier for me". He added that the band's acclaim meant listeners "are gonna be a lot less shocked by [this album]".
Blake, speaking to Jo Youle and Mark Savage of the BBC, said that a lot of the vocals on the album were by him, despite relying more heavily on samples in previous work. "There are times when it might seem there's a sample being used, but I've just sampled myself. That's what makes this record special compared to everything [else] I've done."
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Wikipedia