Review: James Blunt Gets Dark & Dreary On His Latest Album

James Blunt’s music has been called a lot of things over the years; boring, most certainly, drab, once or twice I’m sure, but now he may find his career having a few more tags attached to it, notably in the form of gloomy and melancholy.

Blunt has often joked in the past about how ‘non poppy’ his songs are, but his latest album, Once Upon A Mind, is easily the non-poppiest of the lot. For an artist who has been around for as long as he has, it may shock or disappoint some people that this collection of songs doesn’t really showcase that much professional growth and development from him as other artists who have been around the same length of time as he has. What is clear however is Blunt’s ability to make even what should perhaps be considered an intimate song sound anything but. The case in point on this album is “Cold”, more pointedly, its chorus. Live gigs as we knew them might be on hold for a while but somehow this still comes across like it’s yearning to be sung – drolly I might add – by a few thousand people.

“Champions” doesn’t fare much better and sounds even more out of sorts than it should. Some might think both tracks are some veiled attempt to bring back the popularity he had when he released his debut album Back To Bedlam, but then again, he might not really care that much and just be doing what he wants – my guess is it’s the latter.

If there’s a highlight on the album, it comes in the form of “Monsters.” Written about/inspired by the occasions Blunt sat by his father’s hospital bed, sure it’s extremely sentimental (and therefore likely to not prove of interest to some), but it’s a good kind of sentimental, and a reminder of the genuine talent Blunt has, both as a performer and a lyricist.

Sadly, things then proceed to go downhill again, with the ridiculously electro/EDM feel that lies at the heart of “Younger” sounding like something someone hashed together in their bedroom in the middle of some kind of lyrical or artistic crisis, and there’s far too much auto-tune on “5 Miles” – Blunt sounds nothing; and I do mean nothing, like himself. “How It Feels To Be Alive” is another track inspired by Blunt’s ill father, and with a sprawling piano backdrop, it comes across as melodramatic, but that in itself is a positive thing on such an otherwise dreary album.

While they might not be great tracks per se, especially compared to two that have come before them, “Stop The Clock” and “The Greatest”, which tbh is perhaps the most upbeat and poppy track on the whole album, are for what they’re worth, suitable for repeat listens with “The Greatest” being ideal for plenty of radio play.

The recently re-released edition of this album, the Time Suspended edition, offers up several acoustic versions of songs on the original version, and for those that find Blunt’s voice irritating, they’re perhaps best to be avoided. With that said, for those that like, or can at least endure Blunt’s tones, with the songs stripped back, there’s a refreshing lightness to many of the tracks, with the highlight being “Monsters” – as once again, the sentimentality of the song and the difficult/hard times it’s written about take centre stage, in the right way.

Ultimately this album isn’t for those looking for a collection that will uplift or inspire them. Instead it’s an album that has far too few strong inclusions on it, especially for an album by an artist with the career longevity James Blunt has had to date, but it’s evident that Blunt has made the album that he wanted to, and that seems to be enough for him.