Charnelmind The Smart's Review of James Blunt, Back To Bedlam: Repackaged
30th Aug 2005
Overall Rating
- Value for money
- Other Artists Listened ToRufus Wainwright, Eels, Magnetic Fields
At least he's not David Grey?
Bad Points
That horrible, girly, squawking voice; those cliched singer-songwriter tunes; the sappy, abysmal lyrics
General Comments
Oh lord, please rid me of the horrible plague of the bland, MOR singer-songrwiter that is currently plaguing the British charts. Why lord, oh why? Why must we be subjected to these appalling individuals such as Mr. Blunt who are "credible" because they can play the piano or the guitar and write sappy love songs and "serious" lyrics about "serious" subjects?
James Blunt is a songwriter-by-numbers who sounds pretty much identical to David Grey, Damien Rice, Daniel Powter and every other bland male singer around in the charts at the moment. There is NOTHING musically or lyrically challenging about this other than its deliberate attempt to be thoughtful and universal when it is, instead, boring and cliched. Plus his voice is worse than fingernails down a chalkboard.
What this blandness does is keep good singer songwriters such as the masterful and quirky Rufus Wainwright or the melancholic Antony & the Johnsons out of the charts as the public is fed bland nonsense to make them feel that they have gotten over their bad taste in boy/girl bands and moved on into more "adult" music such as Coldplay and this rubbish.
This is yuppie dinner party music at its worst. This is the sort of bilge that people buy to try and pretend that they have a wide and varied taste in music but that they only ever listen to in the background while they're doing other things so never actually realise how bland and un-poetic, and uninspiring it really is.
Down with this rubbish! Up with real musicality and experimentation!
Stage a coup! Next time you see Mr. Blunt or his nasal, whinging contemporaries, put them out of their misery!
Then go down to your local record shop and buy something that might actually make you think.
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Members' Comments onCharnelmind The Smart's Review
vinceslama
on 9th Oct 2005Charnelmind The Smart
on 12th Oct 2005Actually, I think you'll find that Mr. Blunt's lyrics are little more than cliched nonsense designed to make girls go "aww how sweet." Take "You're Beautiful." First he says he has a plan. Then he goes away and moans about how he doesn't have a plan. Then he says he's high. Then he says that they shared a moment - possibly because he was high he mistook the girl thinking "wow, he looks totally wasted" with a moment. So, does he have a plan? Does his plan involve whining about how he can't get the girl? I don't understand?
As far as singer songwriters with really lovely lyrics and interesting instrumentation, why not try:
Nick Cave
Rufus Wainwright
Eels (a one man-act, essentially fronted by Mark Everett or E)
Stephen Merritt (in any of his guises - Magnetic Fields, 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, etc.)
Malcolm Middleton
Each one of these artists has a unique voice that doesn't blend into the next guy and I promise will move you and make you think. And their lyrics are far from cliched and make actual sense and have actual meaning.
If we're just talking love songs, just as an example, you can't compare "You're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful it's true" to the majesty of:
"I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if He felt He had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms"
Now can you?
When Was James Blunt Born
Alright buddy, if you're so inclined to tell us your opinion, what would you suggest as musically experimental music? Maybe its the fact that you just don't like this type of music and you have that right. But don't try and strengthen your own views in music by downplaying other musicians. When really music is all about opinion. If you don't like it, don't listen to it...all i can say is I'd rather read James Blunt's emotional, some may call sappy, lyrics then your bigoted rant about how this kind of music sucks.