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It’s fascinating, really. As Blake leans more heavily into the organic warmth of traditional R&B music, his vocal applications grow even more manipulated. These undulations occur almost as if he were modulating himself in real time, independent of the technology required. The more rustic approach to his usual alien croon tunes on ‘Friends That Break Your Heart’ marked a stylistic departure from the art pop and UK garage tendencies of his prior work. It was at this juncture in his discography that things started to mutate. The full-length follow up ‘Playing Robots Into Heaven’ made great use of Blake’s background in electronic music, allowing him to extend into somewhat uncharted territory, like tech house and IDM; even straight up ambient synth. A sometimes desolate slowburn, it was easily his most ambitious release to date.
Blake wants to up the ante a little bit though… in the other direction. Easily some of his most straightforward output to date, ‘Trying Times’ sees the expectations get demolished once again. Where one might’ve expected him to follow up his last with something way off the beaten path, this latest effort plants itself squarely in the R&B/singer-songwriter garden. The play this time is in the way Blake subverts structures typically present in music of this vein. A davE verse smack dab in the middle of “Doesn’t Just Happen” could feel out of place if you were attached to the vibe of the tracklist thus far. The beat’s moaning synth string melody provides just enough grit to compromise on the track’s otherwise crystalline sound. The title track’s tear-jerking chord progression is sobering, especially when paired with the longing of the previous cut “I Had A Dream She Took My Hand”, one of the album’s lead singles. It’s the most acoustic that James Blake has ever gone on a record to date, and it’s all the more effective for it.
The closing moments of Trying Times emphasises one of the more elephant-like meanings of the title. Blake has spent the album rummaging through all of these various personal problems and stresses. Love lost, lust for love, how we come to love, needing to make peace with someone. All of this pondering leads James to discover the absolute root cause of his unrest, landing in the form of the soaring ballad “Just A Little Higher”. It’s a sonic soundscape that lifts you, gives you a better vantage point for what Blake is trying to reveal. Lyrically, he constructs the scene of a city, a country, a world that is broken; divided. The solution to the problem of being played by propaganda is simple: aim your scope a bit higher. There are bigger machinations at the top rung of civilisation, and they’ve shown their asses at the hands of new media. Bad faith actors are the perfect distraction. Blake only wants you to believe your eyes when they show you the truth. When ICE agents are kidnapping/killing/assaulting innocent citizens in broad daylight, on video, and the ruling class are trying to convince you otherwise… you need to start asking questions.
Dan Will Review 