There are really four kinds of distinct versions of James Blake that is worth discussing when contemplating a deep dive into his music.
There is 2009 - 2011 James Blake that was largely a dubstep producer, though not in the distinctly American Skrillex kind of way. He really cut loose a number of standout tunes during this time period. CMYK is a strong highlight, but tracks like the The Bells Sketch, Air & Lack therof and his remixes of Mount Kimbe's Maybes and Untold's Stop What Your Doing are also worth a listen, as well as his oddball take on Destiny's Child's Bills, Bills, Bills.
There is the more white boy soul James Blake that emerged in what was a pretty drastic shock on his debut album that seemed to hold some of the touches of his dubstep productions but in a much more singer songwriter way. This style is what he more predominately works in now and days. It's those production touches that make these tracks stand out so well. Recommend The Wilhelm Scream, Limit To Your Love, Unluck, and Retrograde, in particular, but honestly his first two albums are really worth hearing in their entirety.
There is Piano Acoustic James Blake, which is the most boring type of James Blake, but still tolerable. Some people love it, I only kind of like it. Vincent is decent enough, but his cover of Joni Mitchell's A Case Of You the one worth coping.
There is the sort of outsider relationship he currently has with some of the biggest Rap and RnB acts in the game that is having him pop up with credits on some of the biggest albums in the world. I think I read once that he shared a place with Chance The Rapper (one rapper he has had featured in his music), but you can find production and songwriting credits on Kendrick Lamar's DAMN, Beyonce's Lemonade, Jay-Z's 4:44, Frank Ocean's Blond, Vince Staple's Prima Donna, and most recently 2 tracks on the Black Panther soundtrack. All of this work on these has been consistently good.
I think I wrote too much.
SWEET JESUS! hahahahahha😂😂😂 I now have the James Blake bible in my possession. Thanks for all the words! Didn't know he had more dub steppy origins. Yea the one song I've heard is retrograde I believe. Mightve been in the commercials for season one of westworld? Some. HBO show where supernatural factors are at play. But this is great I'm gonna do a listen through of all the songs you mentioned tonight!
Well, I hope it helped. I was in a writing mood.
oh no it definitely will! I feel like I'm in a little musical drought, I have some great starting points into a new (to me) artist now