Overgrown by James Blake

James Blake\'s second studio album, *Overgrown*, is a hypnotizing foray from an artist whose influences have grown from the subtle, futuristic textures of his eponymous 2011 debut to embrace everything from gospel choirs to post-dubstep. On *Overgrown*, Blake further expands his omnivorous influences and yields eclectic results—from a hip-hop track featuring RZA (\"Take a Fall for Me\") to a piano ballad that foregoes synths and electronics entirely (\"Dlm\"). *Overgrown* is challenging but accessible, confidently pacing through a multifaceted garden blooming with complex electronic layers, styles, and emotions.

8.0 / 10

James Blake's follow-up to his breakthrough self-titled album incorporates more gospel and R&B elements and a wider variety of textures. He successfully splits the difference between the sultry bedroom vibes of R&B’s resurgent Quiet Storm moment and the more mundane life of a British “bedroom” artist.

A-

Amid piles of praise for James Blake’s minimalism, icy soulfulness, and overall potency, a small criticism was levied against his first LP: The songs sounded a bit like sketches, like the incomplete or truncated sandboxing of a budding producer discovering his voice. On Overgrown, Blake’s second full-length, it’s…

7 / 10

10 / 10

A work of stark, emotional beauty.

This month's album releases reviewed by the Evening Standard's music critics

6.4 / 10

For his sake—and for ours—it's time to reassess James Blake.

Check out our album review of Artist's Overgrown on Rolling Stone.com.

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7 / 10

7.5 / 10

It seems that James Blake is still in a bit of a funk. His latest effort, Overgrown, rarely pulls out of its state of cloudy despondence, the 24 year-old producer-cum-songwriter instead demonstrating a sensitivity to subtle changes in a single hue, mood,

9 / 10

ClashMusic: Read an album review of James Blake's second album 'Overgrown' featuring appearances by Brian Eno and the Wu Tang Clan's Rza.

James Blake offers more of the same on his second album, although the likes of Kanye West and Brian Eno exert an influence this time around, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>

9 / 10

Blake continues plumbing the depths on Overgrown, an album of depressing doom ballads with a decidedly hopeful slant.

7 / 10

Love, yearning and cosmic loneliness – with glints of beauty and richness – permeate this very able composer's second outing, writes <strong>Paul MacInnes</strong>

65 %

Album Reviews: James Blake - Overgrown

85 %

4.6 / 5

James Blake - Overgrown review: When I see the pictures of every life and the day they die / It's your image burnt into my mind

James Blake's Mercury Prize-winning album, Overgrown is music of emotion and imagination, says Neil McCormick.

Can the king of post-dubstep melancholy deliver on his early promise? CD review by Joe Muggs

9 / 10