James Blake: "Limit to Your Love"

James Blake can rock the fuck out of a slow jam, and his revitalization/maybe canonization of a Feist cut serves as a perfect entry point for anyone skeptical of hot young producers in general. A slight tremolo on the vocals, straight piano, and a simple yet floor-pinning beat that enters about halfway through: it’s the ultimate electro-ballad. Without Feist’s suggestive lilt or relatively pillowing arrangements, the meaning of the words starts to focus a bit more, their odd stringency and hidden bitterness complimenting the peeling back of layers. Blake’s voice is strong and slightly accented, and thanks to his dubstep background, the reverent lack of clamor (even when the beat builds) is striking. Compared to his Klavierwerke EP (2010), which is far more tasteful already than CMYK (2010), it’s the extreme left-field approach to the dancefloor that makes it effective. And by left-field, of course, I mean the high school couples dance.

Yes, Blake is far more interesting when he indulges in nifty effects, but he keeps them dialed down, more felt than heard. “Limit to Your Love” proves he’s more than just an impressive producer, he’s an impressive musician, no matter my own biases and boredom with seemingly prefab dubstep “scenes” or obscure DJs demonstrating the subtlety of a local television commercial or how sometimes Flying Lotus’s “future” music sounds suspiciously to me like big 80s drums. Maybe Blake had to come back from the future to really rock the present. Maybe Michael J. Fox does have lessons for all of us.