James Blunt - The Afterlove

The Guardian 80

(Atlantic)

Since reinventing himself as a Twitter banter lord a few years ago, James Blunt has proved he can do more than just mewl about pretty women and give cockney rhyming slang a new lease of life. But can he carry the genuinely entertaining Blunt 2.0 over into his songcraft? Will he even try? Judging by the album’s opening seconds, in which he moans humourlessly that “people say the meanest things” through a mouthful of whistling sibilance, the answer would seem to be: not in the slightest. And while the lyrics may be banal and inoffensive – bar a few moments of pause-and-rewind strangeness including references to “modern friends” and “beautiful” mothers (not his) – the music is actively risible, with Blunt having adopted a watered-down version of Justin Bieber’s asinine tropical house. It smacks of a desire to edge on to Radio 1 playlists and into student nights incognito, but only serves to highlight how irritating the sound has become. Perhaps, with his slightly desperate iteration, Blunt will help put this particular musical trend out of its misery.

Thu Mar 23 22:00:15 GMT 2017

The Guardian 80

(Atlantic)

“I’ve been called a dick/ I’ve been called so many things,” sings go-to musical punchline James Blunt in the opening lines of his fifth album, on which he twice makes reference to his 2004 millstone megahit You’re Beautiful. He’s made a lot of capital recently out of this self-aware sense of humour, mainly via self-deprecating Twitter quips. But likable isn’t listenable , and it’s hard to stomach the everyman shtick from an Old Harrovian multimillionaire with a ski lift named after him in the Swiss Alps, especially as he croons “some people keeping all the cash” on the perkily trite, why-can’t-we-all-just-get-on strummer Someone Singing Along. That aside, a chart-friendly tropical dance-pop production boosts Ibiza resident Blunt’s querulous, tremulous balladry with a fresh Chris De Burgh-hits-Cafe Del Mar energy on Paradise, Bartender and California, but it’s bland business as usual on soppy numbers such as Make Me Better (co-written with Ed Sheeran) and Time of Our Lives.

Sun Mar 26 06:55:24 GMT 2017