Album Review: James Blake, Playing Robots into Heaven
James Blake has just released his new album, Playing Robots into Heaven. Pic: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP.
- James Blake
- Playing Robots into Heaven
- ★★★★☆
James Blake’s career has seen him go from under-ground club figure to high priest of coffee table electro-pop. His music has become increasingly personal, too – culminating with Friends That Break Your Heart, a 2021 investigation into maintaining friendship when life gets in the way.
But the Londoner reverts to his roots on his sixth album – a sleek, slinky excursion into the rarefied further reaches of dance music. It’s spectral and sublime – the drowsy, dubby beats existing in counterpoint to Blake’s silky voice, which at moments verges on a comforting croon.
Given the title, one could assume Playing Robots into Heaven had something to do with artificial intelligence. Might Blake go out on a limb and let his computers help with the songwriting? Someone will do so at a certain point – why not the former Mercury prize winner?
Playing Robots into Heaven is, in fact, the opposite of AI overkill. It’s gorgeously homespun, flitting across its 11 tracks from 4am ennui to dance-floor escapism.
The club-friendly vibrations are no coincidence. Blake, an Englishman in LA and the partner of actor Jameela Jamil, has been putting on conceptual events in the United States and London, where the soundtrack sliced old-school bangers with light-footed dubstep.
The project maintains a singularity of tone across its running time. That isn’t to say it’s monolithic. There’s a big dance-floor moment on single 'Big Hammer', which features a sample of drum’n'bass duo Ragga Twins. But the vibe cools several degrees on 'Fire The Editor', a pared-down composition that owes more to Philip Glass than Ministry of Sound.
After several pleasantly indistinguishable albums, Blake could easily have drifted towards self-parody. Instead, Playing Robots looks back to the blistering music of his early 20s – offset with the melancholia of early middle age. Playing Robots into Heaven is pacy, mysterious and thoughtful – all you could require of an electronica album that gives the listener something to think about as they bop along to its gripping grooves.
