フォーマット |
CD |
---|---|
構成数 |
1 |
国内/輸入 |
輸入 (International Version) |
パッケージ仕様 |
- |
発売日 |
2016年06月03日 |
---|---|
規格品番 |
4793298 |
レーベル |
|
SKU |
602547932983 |
構成数 | 1枚
合計収録時間 | 01:16:13
Audio Mixer: James Blake . Illustrator: Quentin Blake. Little was heard from James Blake throughout an almost three-year period that followed Overgrown, his second straight Top Ten U.K. album. He appeared on an Airhead track and released a 12" on his 1-800-Dinosaur label, yet it wasn't until February 2016, during his BBC Radio 1 program, that listeners got their initial taste of album three. Drawn like a scene from a dissolving relationship that immediately precedes release and relief, "Modern Soul" hinted that the album could be a bit brighter with less of the anguish that permeated the singer/producer's first two albums. Another song, a vaguely aching minimal dub ballad, was aired two months later, possibly chosen because it too had a title, "Timeless," that could potentially wind up detractors. In late April, when it seemed like he might spring on his audience a tune named something like "Proper Music," Blake received a profile boost from Beyonce, whose Lemonade prominently sported a pair of songs featuring his assistance. A couple weeks later, the long-delayed The Colour in Anything materialized at a length nearly that of his first two albums put together. Recording began in London. Once stalled by creative fatigue, Blake decamped to Rick Rubin's Malibu studio. The sunnier environment had no evident effect on the album's outlook. Regardless of location, Blake continues to deal in fraught romantic trauma, setting the album's tone immediately with "Radio Silence," a mix of mournful gospel and surging synthesizers in which "I can't believe this, you don't wanna see me" is stated something like ten times. As he sifts through the wreckage in puzzled and lucid states, he still stretches and distorts his frail but transfixing choir boy voice. A few lines are expressed with Auto-Tune fillips, some are enhanced through fine layering, and others are left unembellished, sometimes sunk into the mix of basslines that tap and thrum, percussion that gently skitters and scrapes, and synthesizers, applied like coating, that swell and swarm. Most disorienting is "Put That Away and Talk to Me," akin to a malfunctioning lullaby mobile playing a late-'90s Timbaland knockoff. Blake sought some help, not only from Rubin, who co-produced the Malibu sessions, but from Justin Vernon, who assisted with two songs and is heard on "I Need a Forest Fire," while Frank Ocean co-wrote another pair, including the all-voice closer, where Blake solemnly resolves -- ta-da -- that contentment is up to him. Compared to the self-titled debut and Overgrown, this a more graceful and denser purging, one that can soundtrack some intense wallowing or, at a low volume, throb and murmur unobtrusively in the background. ~ Andy Kellman
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1.[CD]
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1.Radio Silence
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2.Points
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3.Love Me in Whatever Way
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4.Timeless
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5.F.o.r.e.v.e.r.
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6.Put That Away and Talk to Me
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7.I Hope My Life
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8.Waves Know Shores
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9.My Willing Heart
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10.Choose Me
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11.I Need a Forest Fire
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12.Noise Above Our Heads
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13.Colour in Anything, The
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14.Two Men Down
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15.Modern Soul
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16.Always
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17.Meet You in the Maze
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ビヨンセ『Lemonade』への参加も話題になるなか、ダブステップ以降の時代を象徴する最大のポップスターが3作目をリリースした。前作に引き続きリック・ルービンが共同プロデュース。噂されていたカニエ・ウェストの起用は実現しなかったものの、ボン・イヴェール、フランク・オーシャンが参加している。鮮烈な展開がオープニングに相応しい"Radio Scilence"で始まり、ごくシンプルなトラックに声を多層的に重ねたり抜いたりしたおもしろさが光る"I Need A Forest Fire"や、堂々たる歌いっぷりが感動的な"My Willing Heart""The Colour In Anything"、ハイライトの"Modern Soul"など聴きどころは多く、スルメ的に味わいたくなる楽曲が中心。歌とサウンドがこれまで以上にしっくりと馴染んでいて、それがアルバム全体に力強さも生んでいる。ヴォーカリストとしてもトラックメイカーとしても着実な成長ぶりを窺わせ、もはや揺るぎない作風は今後の創作へと向かう地固めをするかのようだ。
bounce (C)池田謙司タワーレコード (vol.392(2016年6月25日発行号)掲載)
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