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Overgrown is the second studio album by English electronic musician James Blake. It was released on 5 April 2013 by Blake's Atlas Records, along with Republic Records and Polydor Records.[3] The album features guest appearances from electronic music producer Brian Eno and Wu-Tang Clan member RZA.[4] Overgrown debuted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart and at number one on the US Dance/Electronic chart. It was supported by lead single "Retrograde".
| Overgrown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 5 April 2013 | |||
| Recorded | 2010–2012 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 39:22 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | James Blake | |||
| James Blake chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Overgrown | ||||
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The album was awarded the 2013 Mercury Prize, beating favourites Laura Mvula, Disclosure and David Bowie to win. It also earned Blake a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
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Following both the critical and commercial success of Blake's self-titled debut album, Blake released both the Enough Thunder and Love What Happened Here EPs. These EPs, noticeably more structured than his previous releases, featured more R&B tinged work as opposed to the dubstep-influenced electronic sound of CMYK. Many reviewers speculated in the year between releases that Blake was headed in the wrong direction, with Pitchfork's Larry Fitzmaurice saying that "James Blake's reliance on piano-based singer/songwriter electro-soul perhaps played it a bit too safe, prompting comparisons to the once-outré, now-gear spinning career of fellow avant-crooner Jamie Lidell".[5]
Blake admitted to Hot Press in an interview about Overgrown that his relationship affected the album. He said, "I can't deny it. There's no point in trying to come up with some other explanation for what I've been writing about....When it happened, I was really struck. Y'know—suddenly I'm hit!".[6]
Earlier in 2012, Blake spent time with American rapper Kanye West and singer Justin Vernon. In 2012, after months of speculation, Blake announced a new collaborative non-single release under the moniker Harmonimix. This release featured British rapper Trim and the single "Confidence Boost/Saying" was released on 24 September 2012. It was a return to form for Blake and featured the distinct characteristics present in his previous efforts (though "Confidence Boost" had been floating around on the internet for three or four years).[7]
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During the final weeks of 2012, Blake performed three intimate shows where he debuted five new tracks, "Our Love Comes Back", "Overgrown", "Retrograde", "To the Last" and "Every Day I Ran."[8][9]
Blake announced via Facebook on 7 February 2013 that his second album, Overgrown, would be released on 8 April.[10] The first single from the album, "Retrograde", was debuted the same day on BBC Radio 1, and was released on 11 February. On 7 March, Blake and his labelmates at 1-800 Dinosaur shared both the dub version of "Voyeur" and the album cut of "Digital Lion" featuring Brian Eno.[11] The title track was released as a single on 10 April alongside a music video directed by Nabil Elderkin.[12] A remix of the track "Life Round Here" featuring Chance the Rapper was released on 11 October alongside a music video directed by Nabil Elderkin.[13][14]
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| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.9/10[15] |
| Metacritic | 82/100[16] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [17] |
| The A.V. Club | A−[18] |
| The Daily Telegraph |  [19] |
| The Guardian | [20] |
| The Independent | [21] |
| NME | 8/10[22] |
| Paste | 6.4/10[23] |
| Pitchfork | 8.0/10[24] |
| Q | [25] |
| Rolling Stone |  [26] |
Overgrown received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 40 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".[16] Martyn Young of musicOMH stated that "Overgrown is more diverse and dynamic than before. Blake seems to have found an ideal middle ground between restrained and measured balladry and disorientating electronic soul".[27] This sentiment was echoed by The Guardian's Paul MacInnes, who wrote that "Blake's palette is unique, his abilities as a composer are great and quite obviously growing."[20] In a review for AllMusic, Fred Thomas described the album as existing "somewhere between the vacant echoes of dub and trip-hop, dubstep's sample-slicing production, and the contained heartbreak of a singer/songwriter playing piano to himself in an empty room," and noted that "while it might take listeners a few spins to find the right head space for the album, once they get there, it's an easy place to get lost in."[17] Clash said the album is "paradoxically less fragmented than its illustrious predecessor, ideas rotating core values guided by an affirmatively unseen hand. Which ultimately makes this an even better record."[28]
On 30 October 2013, the album won the Mercury Music Prize for album of the year. The lead single, "Retrograde", also won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.
Overgrown ranked among the top albums for the year, making it on to many end-of-year lists.
Year-end rankings
| Publication | List | Rank | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clash | Clash's Top Albums of 2013 | 2 | [29] |
| Complex | The Best Albums of 2013 | 3 | [30] |
| Consequence of Sound | The Top 50 Albums of 2013 | 37 | [31] |
| The Guardian | The Best Albums of 2013 | 5 | [32] |
| The Michigan Daily | Best of 2013: Top 10 Albums | 6 | [33] |
| Mojo | Top 50 Albums of 2013 | 25 | [34] |
| NME | NME's 50 Best Albums of 2013 | 50 | [35] |
| NPR | NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013 | N/A | [36] |
| Pitchfork | Top 50 Best Albums of 2013 | 26 | [37] |
| Pitchfork | 2013 Readers' Poll | 14 | [38] |
| Pretty Much Amazing | 40 Best Albums of 2013 | 32☨ | [39] |
| Q | 50 Best Albums of 2013 | 46 | [40] |
| Richard Kingsmill | Top 10 Albums of 2013 | 1 | [41] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | Favorite 50 Albums of 2013 | 25 | [42] |
"N/A" indicates that the publication did not rank the works included in their year-end list.
"☨" denotes that the Top 10 were unranked and published alphabetically.
Decade-end rankings
| Publication | List | Rank | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| AllMusic | The AllMusic Decade in Review (2010s) | N/A | [43] |
| The A.V. Club | The AV Club's 50 Favorite Albums of the 2010s | 22 | [44] |
The Decade in Review list incorporates an unranked enumeration of 200 albums spanning the 2010s decade.
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| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Overgrown" | 5:00 |
| 2. | "I Am Sold" | 4:04 |
| 3. | "Life Round Here" | 3:37 |
| 4. | "Take a Fall for Me" (featuring RZA) | 3:33 |
| 5. | "Retrograde" | 3:43 |
| 6. | "DLM" | 2:25 |
| 7. | "Digital Lion" | 4:45 |
| 8. | "Voyeur" | 4:17 |
| 9. | "To the Last" | 4:19 |
| 10. | "Our Love Comes Back" | 3:39 |
| Total length: | 39:22 | |
All tracks are written by James Blake, except "Digital Lion", written by Blake, Brian Eno and Rob McAndrews
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Every Day I Ran" | 3:24 |
| 12. | "Retrograde" (music video) | 4:03 |
| Total length: | 48:09 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "The Wilhelm Scream" (Live at Pitchfork) | 6:01 |
| Total length: | 45:23 | |
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- James Blake – writing, engineering, production, mixing, instrumentation, vocals
- Brian Eno – writing (track 7)
- Rob McAndrews – writing, guitar (track 7)
- Ben Assiter – additional percussion (track 1)
- RZA – vocals (track 4)
- Matt Colton – mastering
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[76] | Gold | 10,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[77] | Silver | 60,000* |
| United States | — | 54,000[78] |
|
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
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