Tag: James Blunt

Alle Farben & James Blunt – Walk Away (Martin Jensen Remix)

“It’s the remixed bit that makes it.”

Tim: Alle Farben, the stage name of a German producer called Frans. James Blunt, yes, that one.

Tom: See, overplayed cliché songs aside, James Blunt is a really good songwriter. This has quite a lot of potential.

Tim: Together, they made a song that’s a fairly decent dancey number, but it’s not particularly hefty, and it’s missing a little something. Martin has come along and provided that.

Tim: BANGER.

Tom: The start of this absolutely passed me by — to the point that I switched off completely and started absent-mindedly working on something else. And then that build started, and I realised that you’re right: this is a good combination.

Tim: Exactly: it’s the remixed bit that makes it. We’ve still got the emotion that James provides in his voice, and fairly regular undertones in the verses, but underneath the chorus and following we’ve now got a fabulous dance breakdown that sounds just brilliant. Yes, it vanishes disappointingly after just two goes, but it’s a decent length to start with, so I’ll forgive that this time.

Tom: The verse does suffer from the melody being mostly one note — the same note that’s being played in the background. It’s a style, I guess, although I can’t say it’s one I enjoy.

Tim: To be honest, much as his vocals work slightly okay here, I’m not sure the world needed a new James Blunt track. It did, though, need this track, and if James’s presence is the price we need to pay for that, then that’s fine by me.

James Blunt – Bonfire Heart

“What a fantastic track it is.”

Tom: This has been out for ages — and on the Radio 2 playlist for just as long — but we haven’t covered it. Because, well, it’s James Blunt.

Tom: The trouble is this: despite him being easy to mock for making overly-simple, lowest-common-denominator, irritating music, he’s certainly got a talent for writing. And while the last couple of albums have just sort of bubbled under, this track has brought him back to mainstream awareness. And what a fantastic track it is.

Tim: Yes – see, I’ve been meaning to suggest this for a while. Every time I hear it I think “ooh, this is great, we should do this” and then realise it’s James Blunt, and for some reason I don’t want to. I don’t know why, because like you said, it’s fantastic. Well, pretty good, anyway.

Tom: Will it go the same way as “You’re Beautiful”, or even Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day”? Adored, played everywhere, and then so ubiquitous as to become annoying? It’s certainly possible, because it’s catchy, it’s a builder, and it’s just a plain good song.

Tim: It is, especially for a track that mostly has just a drum beat, a guitar and a voice that’s constantly on the verge of annoying.

Tom: Apart from those first two lines. I could do without those first two lines.

And what was he thinking with that video? While I’m sure it’s lovely, bringing America together like that, James Blunt does not look like a natural fit for an enormous motorcycle.

Tim: No, but then to be honest very few people are natural fits for those bikes except overweight fifty year olds who’ve grown out of decent motorbikes.

James Blunt – Dangerous

Interesting for all the wrong reasons.

Tom: I wouldn’t normally even mention James Blunt’s music – no matter how much you may like the man himself, I think we can agree that his music tends to be a bit on the insipid side.

This one, though, is interesting for all the wrong reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgJVMa2g9Fg

Tim: Is it?

Tom: If Chesney Hawkes’ songwriter isn’t getting royalties for “The One and Only” off this, then he’s probably thinking about legal action. And as for the composers of Flashdance’s soundtrack…

Tim: It had been a while since I heard The One and Only, so I didn’t think anything of it at the start. Then I went and listened to it, and then relistened to James Blunt, and my word yes. I’d not heard Flashdance at all, but yes, there as well. Although in that case: let’s be honest, its a very basic drum pattern, and there are only so many of them to go round – I’m sure there are other songs I’ve heard it on as well.

Tom: It’s more than a drum pattern! It’s the entire melody line. Tell me I’m not the only one hearing that – it’s almost the same song.

What gets me is that apparently, no-one muttered “you know, this really sounds like those other songs” loud enough during the production process. Because surely everyone’s going to notice this, right?

Tim: Well, maybe, but there are two things to consider: firstly, you can’t copyright a drum beat, and secondly, does anybody actually care?