The Daily Spin, September 11
James Blake | Playing Robots Into Heaven
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Playing Robots Into Heaven (2023)
Artist: James Blake
Link:
Somewhere between the expansive darkness of Burial, the twinkling space of Jamie xx, and the sample-driven chaos of The Avalanches, James Blake remains, an icon unto himself and an island alone in a sea of his own creation, isolated through a style almost entirely unique to himself, though his legacy will forever be traceable through a thousand songs if none at all.
Though he’s found himself quite the niche as a producer through falsetto-driven downtempo electronica that calls as a siren does to the masses, and while features with Andre 3000, SZA, Travis Scott, and most recently on the Spider-Verse soundtrack signs that his name belongs on the biggest stages, it’s been my personal opinion that his solo work largely gets slept on outside of quieter circles because of a lack of public accessibility through the pop sphere - sure, 2021’s Friends That Break Your Heart was about as close as he’s come, and past works with Bon Iver as well as his best off of Assume Form remind us all of his talent, but this is the first time since his debut that I’ve looked at James Blake’s work and thought there’s truly something at the heart of it.
Playing Robots Into Heaven doesn’t always click - indeed, on leading single ‘Loading’ I’m left feeling stuck in a really unpleasant sort of cacophony, but outside of that, this is absolutely delightful music, right at the heart of everything wonderful about modern electronic music, and it’s the wonky Flume-like synths that serve as the cherry on top of everything - because at the end of the day, even those become building blocks for the tower Blake built.
Rating: 8.9/10
Best Tracks: I Want You To Know; Tell Me; If You Can Hear Me
Worst Tracks: Loading