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Oct 09, 2023 Web Exclusive By Mariel Fechik

UK singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer James Blake’s career arc has been fascinating to watch over the past decade. As mainstream music culture has expanded to embrace artists once considered too “indie” by the general public, Blake’s position has shifted from being something like your-favorite-producer’s-favorite-producer to someone who is regularly tapped to produce and write for global stars.

His sixth record, Playing Robots Into Heaven, comes two years after Friends That Break Your Heart, which was the closest thing to a pop record Blake has ever released. Rather than continue down the path that earned him the highest charting music of his career, Blake has pivoted towards his electronic and club roots. Playing Robots Into Heaven features more textural electronic production and instrumentals than any music he’s released in years (save the 2020 quarantine project Before).

But despite the production-heavy focus of Robots, there is a pervasive warmth throughout the record; though the album can be seen as a decided step away from accessibility, it feels more like a complete synthesis of his career than anything else. It reconciles the balladeer who covers Don McClean and Roberta Flack with the producer who was once hailed as the new vanguard of dubstep.

In that way, Playing Robots Into Heaven feels like a meta-commentary on this duality, positioning the softer elements of Blake’s writing, like his classical-leaning melodies and poetic lyricism, against the cold and alien soundscapes that populated his earliest music. His expressive and immediately recognizable voice has always been a hallmark of his work, and though it’s not quite as present here as on his more traditionally structured songs, it acts as a perfect foil to the robotic distortion of the production.

The songs on Robots feel intentionally interconnected, meant to be listened to as a cohesive whole rather than individual tracks made for streaming-era consumption. Tracks such as the industrial “Big Hammer” and the somber, nearly acoustic “If You Can Hear Me” feel worlds away from each other, but Blake utilizes sonic motifs like skittering drum loops, choral vocals, and his trademark vocal samples to create an impressionistic series of songs that meld seamlessly into each other.

Though Playing Robots Into Heaven recalls some of Blake’s more inscrutable, cloistered years as a musician, it also offers the clarity and confidence of someone who could do anything—but has chosen this. (www.jamesblakemusic.com)

Author rating: 8/10