release date: Jan. 18, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,65]
producer: James Blake, Dominic Maker
label: Polydor Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Assume Form" (4 / 5) - 2. "Mile High" (feat. Metro Boomin & Travis Scott) - 5. "Barefoot in the Park" (feat. Rosalía) - 6. "Can't Believe the Way We Flow" - 8. "Where's the Catch?" (feat. André 3000) - 9. "I'll Come Too" (4 / 5)
4th studio album by British electronic artist James Blake takes on a new style by incorporating rap on top of his explorations into alt. r&b, art pop and ambient pop. The album consists of 12 tracks with an average playing time from 3-5 minutes and a total running time at just over 48 mins.
The album has [already] been met by critical acclaim, and I do think of it as his easily far best album. Normally, rap is not a genre I turn to, and frankly, most often simply avoid, however, this offers a different approach [than 'the Drake, the West, the Wayne and the-what-have-we-that-sounds-the-same-kind-of-boring-contemporary-rap-thing'] with an obvious more trap rap style but also in a liquid combination with Blake's usual electronic approach makes it something other than "just" [contemporary] rap. It's also alt. r&b and neo-soul taken into a mild ambient synthpop kind of sound that just works altogether as something quite extraordinary. It's such a warm and pleasant soundscape.
Assume Form is not only Blake's best effort, it's also one of the best albums of 2019 and as such highly recommendable.
EDIT Dec. 2019:
The album started out as my absolute favourite of the year back in Jan. '19, and passing through Spring and Summer it remained at the top. Then a couple of things happened: the album began to wear, and a couple of other releases kept pushing on. Assume Form is a mighty fine and mostly coherent album - what I discovered though, is a sensation of it being too polished - 'over-produced' is a word that keeps popping up. It still remains one of the albums I have played the most throughout the year, but others keep it from the absolute top, and over time, it just doesn't feel that impressive.
Recommended.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, 👍The Guardian 4 / 5, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, NME 5 / 5 stars ]
