30 Jun 2005

James Blunt: Back To Bedlam

Fridae's Ms Mariah Scary goes Back To Bedlam with James Blunt and declares it to be one of the best albums ever released by a male singer-songwriter!

Artist: James Blunt

Released: 2005

Upon listening to Mr James Blunt's album where the talented musician sings like a weary pubescent on the cusp of adolescence (breaking voice and quivering falsettos included), Ms Scary is seized by an uncontrollable urge to draw him into her heaving bosom and smother him with Sapphic sisterly affection.

A former Captain who was stationed in war torn Kosovo as part of NATO's peacekeeping force and who once protected the Queen and the Queen Mother, Blunt drew on his personal experience to create a breathtaking debut of sing-along songs accompanied by lyrics that are at times grief laden and at times uplifting but always heartfelt.

Maintaining a confessional tone throughout the 10-song record, Blunt sings about unattainable romance in "You're Beautiful" (undoubtedly dedicated to Ms Scary), close friendship in "Cry," inner journeys in "Tears And Rain," and failed relationship in the piano-accompanied ballad "Goodbye My Lover" (get out your Kleenex!).

With his talent in crafting songs filled with emotional resonance and given the fact that the singer-songwriter was immediately signed by non blonde Linda Perry (who also happens to pen hits for pop-tartlets such as Pink and Christina Aguilera), James Blunt definitely gets Ms Scary vote for the Most Promising Male Artiste of the decade.

Scary's Selected Spins: "High," "You're Beautiful," "Wisemen," "Goodbye My Lover," "Tears and Rain," "Out Of My Mind" and "Cry."