Overgrown

Overgrown is the second studio album by English electronic musician James Blake. It was released on 5 April 2013 by Blake's Atlas Records, along with A&M Records and Polydor Records. The album features guest appearances from electronic music producer Brian Eno and Wu-Tang Clan member RZA.[3] Overgrown debuted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart and at number one on the US Dance/Electronic chart. It was supported by lead single "Retrograde".

For other uses, see Overgrow.

Overgrown
Studio album by
James Blake
Released5 April 2013 (2013-04-05)
Recorded2010–2012
Genre
Length39:22
Label
ProducerJames Blake
James Blake chronology
Love What Happened Here
(2011)		 Overgrown
(2013)		 200 Press (EP)
(2014)
Singles from Overgrown
  1. "Retrograde"
    Released: 11 February 2013[2]
  2. "Overgrown"
    Released: 10 April 2013

The album was awarded the 2013 Mercury Prize, beating favourites Laura Mvula, Disclosure and David Bowie to win. It also earned Blake a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.

Background

Following both the critical and commercial success of Blake's self-titled debut album, Blake released both the Enough Thunder and Love What Happened Here EPs. These EPs, noticeably more structured than his previous releases, featured more R&B tinged work as opposed to the dubstep-influenced electronic sound of CMYK. Many reviewers speculated in the year between releases that Blake was headed in the wrong direction, with Pitchfork's Larry Fitzmaurice saying that "James Blake's reliance on piano-based singer/songwriter electro-soul perhaps played it a bit too safe, prompting comparisons to the once-outré, now-gear spinning career of fellow avant-crooner Jamie Lidell".[4]

Blake admitted to Hot Press in an interview about Overgrown that his relationship affected the album. He said, "I can't deny it. There's no point in trying to come up with some other explanation for what I've been writing about....When it happened, I was really struck. Y'know—suddenly I'm hit!".[5]

Earlier in 2012, Blake spent time with American rapper Kanye West and singer Justin Vernon. In 2012, after months of speculation, Blake announced a new collaborative non-single release under the moniker Harmonimix. This release featured British rapper Trim and the single "Confidence Boost/Saying" was released on 24 September 2012. It was a return to form for Blake and featured the distinct characteristics present in his previous efforts (though "Confidence Boost" had been floating around on the internet for three or four years).[6]

Promotion and release

During the final weeks of 2012, Blake performed three intimate shows where he débuted five of his new songs, the five being "Our Love Comes Back", "Overgrown", "Retrograde", "To the Last" and "Every Day I Ran."[7][8]

Blake announced via Facebook on 7 February 2013 that his second album, Overgrown, would be released on 8 April.[9] The first single from the album, "Retrograde", was debuted the same day on BBC Radio 1, and was released on 11 February. On 7 March, Blake and his labelmates at 1-800 Dinosaur shared both the dub version of "Voyeur" and the album cut of "Digital Lion" featuring Brian Eno.[10] The title track was released as a single on 10 April alongside a music video directed by Nabil Elderkin.[11] A remix of the track "Life Round Here" featuring Chance the Rapper was released on 11 October alongside a music video directed by Nabil Elderkin.[12][13]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.9/10[14]
Metacritic82/100[15]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[16]
The A.V. ClubA−[17]
The Daily Telegraph[18]
The Guardian[19]
The Independent[20]
NME8/10[21]
Paste6.4/10[22]
Pitchfork8.0/10[23]
Q[24]
Rolling Stone[25]

Overgrown received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 40 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".[15] Martyn Young of musicOMH stated that "Overgrown is more diverse and dynamic than before. Blake seems to have found an ideal middle ground between restrained and measured balladry and disorientating electronic soul".[26] This sentiment was echoed by The Guardian's Paul MacInnes, who wrote that "Blake's palette is unique, his abilities as a composer are great and quite obviously growing."[19] In a review for AllMusic, Fred Thomas described the album as existing "somewhere between the vacant echoes of dub and trip-hop, dubstep's sample-slicing production, and the contained heartbreak of a singer/songwriter playing piano to himself in an empty room," and noted that "while it might take listeners a few spins to find the right head space for the album, once they get there, it's an easy place to get lost in."[16] Clash said the album is "paradoxically less fragmented than its illustrious predecessor, ideas rotating core values guided by an affirmatively unseen hand. Which ultimately makes this an even better record."[27]

On 30 October 2013, the album won the Mercury Music award for album of the year. The lead single, "Retrograde", also won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.

Overgrown ranked among the top albums for the year, making it on to many end-of-year lists.

Year-end rankings
Publication List Rank Ref
Clash Clash's Top Albums of 2013 2 [28]
Complex The Best Albums of 2013 3 [29]
Consequence of Sound The Top 50 Albums of 2013 37 [30]
The Guardian The Best Albums of 2013 5 [31]
The Michigan Daily Best of 2013: Top 10 Albums 6 [32]
Mojo Top 50 Albums of 2013 25 [33]
NME NME's 50 Best Albums of 2013 50 [34]
NPR NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013 N/A [35]
Pitchfork Top 50 Best Albums of 2013 26 [36]
Pitchfork 2013 Readers' Poll 14 [37]
Pretty Much Amazing 40 Best Albums of 2013 32☨ [38]
Q 50 Best Albums of 2013 46 [39]
Richard Kingsmill Top 10 Albums of 2013 1 [40]
Tiny Mix Tapes Favorite 50 Albums of 2013 25 [41]

"N/A" indicates that the publication did not rank the works included in their year-end list.

"☨" denotes that the Top 10 were unranked and published alphabetically.

Decade-end rankings
Publication List Rank Ref
AllMusic The AllMusic Decade in Review (2010s) N/A [42]
The A.V. Club The AV Club's 50 Favorite Albums of the 2010s 22 [43]

The Decade in Review list incorporates an unranked enumeration of 200 albums spanning the 2010s decade.

Track listing

All tracks are written by James Blake, except "Digital Lion", written by Blake, Brian Eno and Rob McAndrews

No.TitleLength
1."Overgrown"5:00
2."I Am Sold"4:04
3."Life Round Here"3:37
4."Take a Fall for Me" (featuring RZA)3:33
5."Retrograde"3:43
6."DLM"2:25
7."Digital Lion"4:45
8."Voyeur"4:17
9."To the Last"4:19
10."Our Love Comes Back"3:39
Total length:39:22
iTunes bonus tracks[44]
No.TitleLength
11."Every Day I Ran"3:24
12."Retrograde" (music video)4:03
Total length:48:09
Japanese edition bonus track[45]
No.TitleLength
11."The Wilhelm Scream" (Live at Pitchfork)6:01
Total length:45:23

Personnel
  • James Blake – writing, engineering, production, mixing, instrumentation, vocals
  • Brian Eno – writing (track 7)
  • Rob McAndrews – writing, guitar (track 7)
  • Ben Assiter – additional percussion (track 1)
  • RZA – vocals (track 4)
  • Matt Colton – mastering

Charts

Certifications and sales
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[75] Gold 10,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[76] Silver 60,000*
United States — 54,000[77]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history
Region Date Label
Australia[78] 5 April 2013 Universal
Germany[79]
Ireland[80]
United Kingdom[81] 8 April 2013
France[82] Universal
Sweden[83]
Italy[84] 9 April 2013
Poland[85]
United States[86] Republic
Japan[45] 10 April 2013 Universal

See also

References
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