Overgrown Explained

Overgrown
Type:studio
Artist:James Blake
Cover:James Blake - Overgrown album cover.png
Recorded:2010–2012
Genre:
Length:39:22
Label:
Producer:James Blake
Prev Title:Love What Happened Here
Prev Year:2011
Next Title:200 Press (EP)
Next Year:2014

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 Republic Records and Polydor Records.[2] 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".

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 debuted five new tracks, "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]

Critical reception

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". 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".[13] This sentiment was echoed by The Guardians Paul MacInnes, who wrote that "Blake's palette is unique, his abilities as a composer are great and quite obviously growing." 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." 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."[14]

On 30 October 2013, the album won the Mercury Music Prize 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
ClashClash's Top Albums of 20132[15]
ComplexThe Best Albums of 20133[16]
Consequence of SoundThe Top 50 Albums of 201337[17]
The GuardianThe Best Albums of 20135[18]
The Michigan DailyBest of 2013: Top 10 Albums6[19]
MojoTop 50 Albums of 201325[20]
NMENME's 50 Best Albums of 201350[21]
NPRNPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013N/A[22]
PitchforkTop 50 Best Albums of 201326[23]
Pitchfork2013 Readers' Poll14[24]
Pretty Much Amazing40 Best Albums of 201332[25]
Q50 Best Albums of 201346[26]
Richard KingsmillTop 10 Albums of 20131[27]
Tiny Mix TapesFavorite 50 Albums of 201325[28]
"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

PublicationListRankRef
AllMusicThe AllMusic Decade in Review (2010s)N/A[29]
The A.V. ClubThe AV Club's 50 Favorite Albums of the 2010s22[30]
The Decade in Review list incorporates an unranked enumeration of 200 albums spanning the 2010s decade.

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2013)Peak
position
Australian Dance Albums (ARIA)[31] 1
Croatian Albums (HDU)[32] 25
Greek Albums (IFPI)[33] 57
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[34] 12
South Korean Albums (Gaon)[35] 52

Year-end charts

Chart (2013)Position
Australian Dance Albums (ARIA)[36] 19
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[37] 117
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[38] 76
UK Albums (OCC)[39] 186
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[40] 23

Release history

RegionDateLabel
Australia[41] 5 April 2013Universal
Germany[42]
Ireland[43]
United Kingdom[44] 8 April 2013
France[45] Universal
Sweden[46]
Italy[47] 9 April 2013
Poland[48]
United States[49] Republic
Japan[50] 10 April 2013Universal

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: James Blake. Matthew Haddrill. The Line of Best Fit.
  2. Web site: Overgrown – James Blake (Republic). WRVU.org.
  3. Web site: Brian Eno, RZA Guest on James Blake Album. . 25 February 2013 .
  4. Web site: James Blake: Love What Happened Here review. .
  5. Web site: "I fell in love" – James Blake tells Hot Press.
  6. Web site: Trimbal: "Confidence Boost/Saying". 22 August 2012 .
  7. Web site: Watch James Blake Play Two New Songs -- Pitchfork . Pitchfork . 2012-12-05 . 2012-12-08.
  8. Web site: James Blake Setlist at Conway Hall, London, England . Setlist.fm . 2012-12-04 . 2013-04-08.
  9. Web site: My new album... . James Blake . 2013-02-07 . 2013-02-07.
  10. Web site: James Blake – "Digital Lion". 7 March 2013. Complex. 4 January 2019.
  11. Web site: James Blake unveils video for 'Overgrown' – watch. Cooper. Leonie. 10 April 2013. NME. en-US. 4 January 2019.
  12. Web site: James Blake and Chance The Rapper reveal 'Life Round Here' video – watch. Cooper. Leonie. 14 October 2013. NME. en-US. 4 January 2019.
  13. Web site: musicOMH review. 3 April 2013 .
  14. Web site: Clash magazine review. 8 April 2013 .
  15. Web site: Clash's Top Albums Of 2013: 10-1. 2021-05-11. Clash Magazine. 13 December 2013 . en.
  16. Web site: The Best Albums of 2013. 2021-05-11. Complex. en.
  17. Web site: 2013-12-13. Top 50 Albums of 2013. 2021-05-11. Consequence. en-US.
  18. Web site: 2013-12-16. The best albums of 2013: No 5 – Overgrown by James Blake. 2021-05-11. The Guardian. en.
  19. Web site: Staff. Daily Arts. 2014-01-08. Best of 2013: Top 10 Albums. 2021-05-11. The Michigan Daily. en-US.
  20. Web site: MOJO's Top 50 Albums of 2013. 2021-05-11. Album of The Year. en.
  21. Web site: 2013-11-26. NME's 50 Best Albums Of 2013. 2021-05-11. NME. en-GB.
  22. Web site: NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums Of 2013. 2021-05-11. NPR. en.
  23. Web site: 2013-12-19. Pitchfork: Top 50 Albums of 2013. 2021-05-11. yearendlists.com.
  24. Web site: 2013 Readers Poll Results. 2021-05-11. Pitchfork. 31 December 2013 . en.
  25. Web site: PMA's 40 Best Albums of 2013 Pretty Much Amazing. 2021-05-11. en-US.
  26. Web site: Q Magazine's Top 50 Albums of 2013. 2021-05-11. Album of The Year. en.
  27. Web site: 2017-06-21. 2013 – Albums of the Year. 2021-05-11. triple j. en-AU.
  28. Web site: 2013: Favorite 50 Albums of 2013. 2021-05-11. Tiny Mix Tapes. en.
  29. Web site: The AllMusic Decade in Review. 2021-05-11. AllMusic. en.
  30. Web site: Club. The A. V.. The 50 best albums of the 2010s. 20 November 2019 . 2021-05-11. MTV. en-us.
  31. ARIA Dance – Week Commencing 15th April 2013 . https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20130506030438/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/23790/20130506-1144/Issue1207.pdf . dead . 2013-05-06 . . 1207 . 17 . 15 April 2013 . 5 February 2020 . National Library of Australia.
  32. Web site: Top Kombiniranih – Tjedan 20. 2013. . Top Combined – Week 20, 2013 . . hr . 22 May 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161224120351/http://www.hdu-toplista.com/index.php?what=arhiva&w=details&id=1181 . 24 December 2016.
  33. Web site: Official Cyta-IFPI Charts – Top-75 Albums Sales Chart (Εβδομάδα: 17/2013) . el . . 17 May 2013 . https://archive.today/20130511155037/http://www.ifpi.gr/charts_el.html . 11 May 2013.
  34. Web site: http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/534336/ranking/cd_album/ . ja:ジェイムス・ブレイクのアルバム売り上げランキング . James Blake album sales ranking . ja . . 21 April 2013.
  35. Web site: 2013년 18주차 Album Chart . ko . . 5 February 2020.
  36. Web site: ARIA Charts – End Of Year Charts – Top 50 Dance Albums 2013 . . 8 February 2014.
  37. Web site: Jaaroverzichten 2013 – Albums . nl . Ultratop . 8 February 2014.
  38. Web site: Album Top-100 2013 . Hitlisten.NU . da . 8 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140204003714/http://www.hitlisterne.dk/yearlist2013.asp?list=Album%20100 . 4 February 2014.
  39. Web site: End of Year 2013. UKChartsPlus. 4 August 2020.
  40. Top Dance/Electronic Albums – Year-End 2013 . Billboard . 8 February 2014.
  41. Web site: James Blake Store – Overgrown . Getmusic. Universal Music Australia . 21 April 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130722223123/http://www.getmusic.com.au/jamesblake/store/detail?id=178557 . 22 July 2013.
  42. Web site: James Blake | Overgrown . de . Universal Music Germany . 21 April 2013.
  43. Web site: Blake,james – Overgrown . . 21 April 2013.
  44. Web site: Overgrown . Amazon . 21 April 2013.
  45. Web site: Overgrown – James Blake . fr . . 21 April 2013.
  46. Web site: Overgrown – James Blake . sv . CDON.se . 21 April 2013.
  47. Web site: James Blake – Overgrown . it . Internet Bookshop Italia . 21 April 2013.
  48. Web site: James Blake – Overgrown . pl . Universal Music Poland . 21 April 2013 . 4 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055937/http://www.universalmusic.pl/artysci.id_3563.a_dyskografia.idp_7761 . dead .
  49. Web site: James Blake: Overgrown . . 21 April 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130503042515/http://www.republicrecords.com/new_releases/overgrown/ . 3 May 2013 . dead .
  50. Web site: http://www.universal-music.co.jp/james-blake/products/uicp-1154/ . ja:ジェイムス・ブレイク – オーヴァーグロウン . James Blake – Overgrown . ja . . 21 April 2013.