James Blake – Limit To Your Love

I just heard this song yesterday and I was like seriously, what just happened? When the dubstep bass kicks in at about a third of the way, it really does feel like some kind of an earthquake. It’s totally unexpected but in the best possible way. A rumble that matches the uneasiness of the lyrics, reminiscent of the tension that underlies all social relations causing them either to unravel or recombine in unexpected ways. Blake’s ability to fit in varying emotions into even the smallest bit of phrasing creates a song filled with all sorts of intensity, just the kinda thing one should expect from a good love song. Thanks to the producers who were careful with the construction of this track and didn’t make it a saccharine, everyday-ish ballad.

Jape-Floating

This song is verging on the cliché, the kinda declaration of universal love the hippies co-opted and ruined. The kinda cliché Crimethinc regurgitated from the texts of Situationists and Eduardo Galeano. Jape dodges cliché and instead, it finally feels like the real thing – the perfect antithesis to Blake’s Limit to Your Love’s “maps without oceans.” It’s about what’s beautiful in love and it’s possibilities for creating new worlds within the context of knowing deep down we are are all rather insignificant.
“We laid by the river, we looked at the stars. I said how tiny we are girl, how tiny we are…It feels like floating…”

The Sisters Of Mercy – Marian

“In a sea of faces, in a sea of doubt
In this cruel place your voice above the maelstrom
In the wake of this ship of fools I’m falling further down
If you can see me, Marian, reach out and take me home…..”

A soundtrack for the dark days of winter.

Nouvelle Vague – Marian

Slightly more upbeat but still melancholy.