Electric Light

by 
AlbumMay 18 / 201814 songs, 48m 33s
Pop Rock
Popular

While writing his second album, UK singer/songwriter James Bay adopted a David Bowie quote as his mission statement: “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” Secretly hunkered down in a basement studio when he was supposed to be on a six-month break, Bay felt free to experiment. He reemerged with a questing set of songs that crosses into simmering funk-rock, taut alt-pop, and folky electro-R&B from Bon Iver’s neck of the woods. The risk in diverting from the Americana-tinged pop-rock of his GRAMMY®-nominated debut, *Chaos and the Calm*, is mitigated by unshakable melodies and Bay’s versatile voice, which continues to crackle with the joy and pain of love. Mission accomplished.

James Bay knocks his old persona into a cocked hat on this wildly diverse second album, which sounds at once like D'Angelo and The Strokes.

An album that spotlights raw, physical emotions with confidence.

But the singer-songwriter still sounds more John Mayer than Frank Ocean on his second record

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Post-hat James Bay has made an 'exquisitely produced, well-paced and shiny' new album /> <meta name=

7 / 10

Hats off to James Bay. His 2015 debut, which went straight to number one, set expectations at an all-time high for the follow-up. ‘Electric

Bay’s second album ditches the bluesy apparel for ruthlessly efficient pop with more en-masse choirs than a touring production of Sister Act

Album Reviews: James Bay - Electric Light

James Bay became the biggest selling British debut artist of 2015 with the aura of a singer-songwriter invented by the music business to fill gaps in the market.