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