Mark Fisher, excellent, on James Blake's Overgrown and "The Secret Sadness of the 21st Century", over at Electronic Beats (where Lisa Blanning, formerly of The Wire, now edits):

"The initial motivation for Blake’s early work no doubt came from Burial, whose combination of jittery two-step beats and R&B vocal samples pointed the way to a 21st century pop. It was as if Burial had produced the dub versions; now the task was to construct the originals, and that entailed replacing the samples with an actual vocalist. Listening back to Blake’s records in chronological sequence is like hearing a ghost gradually assume material form; or it’s like hearing the song form (re)coalescing out of digital ether."

Mark then moves on to talk about the depressive hedonism of recent chartpop and radio rap (mentioning Kanye and Drake... Kendrick Lamarr would also fit well in this balling-but-feeling-hollow-and-numb-inside company):


"In the 21st century, there’s an increasingly sad and desperate quality to pop culture hedonism.... When former R&B producers and performers embraced dance music, you might have expected an increase in euphoria, an influx of ecstasy. Yet the digitally-enhanced uplift in the records by producers such as Flo-Rida, Pitbull and will.i.am has a strangely unconvincing quality, like a poorly photoshopped image or a drug that we’ve hammered so much we’ve become immune to its effects. It’s hard not to hear these records’ demands that we enjoy ourselves as thin attempts to distract from a depression that they can only mask, never dissipate."


(Check out some choice assonance from later in Mark's piece  -- "the disaffection languishes listlessly, incapable of even recognizing itself as sadness" - say it aloud!)

Mind you, the sadness in chartpop, I'm not sure it's that well secreted. It's often rather upfront, the explicit content of quite a few recent hits: Rihanna + Calvin Harris finding "love in a hopeless place", Rihanna's cheerless "Cheers", even "Shine Bright Like Diamonds" (which It's Her Factory's Robin convincingly shows to be a subdued, despondent ditty whose unresolved musical structure belie the ostensible "every man and woman is a superstar" poptimism of the lyric).

Talking of Calvin H, I still reckon the secret -- if not prototype, then affiliate - for what Mark calls the "quavery and tremulous" Blake vocal style is Harris's mistily enunciated, half-swallowed singing on "I'm Not Alone".  (Which is no diss: I really like "I'm Not Alone").



(Interestingly many fans of "I'm Not Alone" take it as being about depressive hedonism, being all clubbed out and not being able to hack the lifestyle anymore. Loneliness on the dancefloor. I hadn't picked up on that myself, more the sort of vague undefined religiose-spiritual aspect)

Talking of deflation amid the E-lation, I really enjoy the bit in "Scream & Shout" when the beat halts and will.i.am goes "cus I was feeling down / now i'm feeling better", in this dejected, crestfallen voice.   Then it's back to the party all night "on and on and on and on" grind.

The whole aesthetic of the video is about as denatured and alienated as you can get

The initial motivation for Blake’s early work no doubt came from Burial, whose combination of jittery two-step beats and R&B vocal samples pointed the way to a 21st century pop. It was as if Burial had produced the dub versions; now the task was to construct the originals, and that entailed replacing the samples with an actual vocalist.
Listening back to Blake’s records in chronological sequence is like hearing a ghost gradually assume material form; or it’s like hearing the song form (re)coalescing out of digital ether.
- See more at: http://www.electronicbeats.net/2013/04/18/mark-fisher-recommends-james-blakes-overgrown/#sthash.KbVWHJow.dpuf

The initial motivation for Blake’s early work no doubt came from Burial, whose combination of jittery two-step beats and R&B vocal samples pointed the way to a 21st century pop. It was as if Burial had produced the dub versions; now the task was to construct the originals, and that entailed replacing the samples with an actual vocalist.
Listening back to Blake’s records in chronological sequence is like hearing a ghost gradually assume material form; or it’s like hearing the song form (re)coalescing out of digital ether.
- See more at: http://www.electronicbeats.net/2013/04/18/mark-fisher-recommends-james-blakes-overgrown/#sthash.KbVWHJow.dpuf