Listen: James Blake – Not Long Now

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I guess it’s simply in human nature to laud and exalt something before criticising it at the slightest whim. We Brits do this better than anyone.

Take the constant media rollercoaster that surrounds each major football tournament, for example, and remember when Gavin Henson was predicted to be the next saviour of Welsh rugby? And where is he now? Starring in the UK version of American reality TV show ‘The Bachelor’, all oiled up and surrounded by beautiful, baiting women. Oh life is cruel.

James Blake is someone who’s just starting to learn more than most about our tendancy to build people up just to knock them back down. Scroll back on your Twitter feeds to December of last year and his leaked 2011 debut was already being tipped as the best album of a year we hadn’t even entered yet. But now there seems to be a certain amount of cynicism surrounding the young producer-songwriter, especially after the lacklustre recent collaboration with Bon Iver.

That, then, is why it’s good to hear this. Not so much a “return to form” or “back to his roots” affair but more pleasing blend of the solo, vocal-led stuff featured on his self-titled full-length and the older, more bass-heavy EPs.

Maybe we all need to cheer up a bit and give the boy a break. And from this sombre 5mins 5secs of brooding electronica here, perhaps Blake does too.

‘Not Long Now’ is taken from Blake’s new EP Enough Thunder, out 10 October.