James Blake: s/t

Label: UMG

People are making a lot of fuss over young James Blake of the United Kingdom, and if you hear the fuss before you hear the record, you'll probably come to the record feeling sure it won't be all that, like I did. Well...it's really pretty damn cool. There's a formula here: Blake's vanilla-soul vocals plus tamped down dubstep-like rhythm tracks equals success. I could have mentioned what's missing though, and what really makes this record work on so many levels -- soulful in the most modern way, slow-dancing sexy, headphone euphoric -- is the vast empty spaces that allow Blake's croon to be effective (like, "good" almost doesn't factor in) and the backing tracks to be so moving. This is a very cool minimalist soul record, with wide-open fields of sadness and longing ("Why Don't You Call Me?" and the piano-touched "Limit to Your Love") and the occasional bass-drop that hits you lovingly in the groin ("I Mind"). Take a listen below, you just might fall hard for this stuff.