The Thousands

Boy genius of 2011 James Blake released his fourth EP Enough Thunder last week. This is not just a big moment in my tiny universe, but for overly sentimental, wistful youths all over the world. Not to mention in the music world itself, as this first release following Blake’s debut album has been holding the hype machine ransom to a huge sum.

Enough Thunder is six tracks long – this is a large EP by usual standards. While we’ve been waiting, Blake has been making. Making and touring, which makes this EP all the more incredible. The opening track, ‘Once We All Agree,’ ensures that no one is left underestimating the boy’s natural talent as both a vocalist and a producer.

Two misfits ‘Falls Creek Boys Choir’, the collaborative single with Bon Iver, and the Joni Mitchell cover ‘A Case of You’, are perhaps the weaker points of the EP – but only because the bubble created by the other tracks is as sparse and gripping as ever. Here, there is one loud moment, not dissimilar to the mesmerising peaks of ‘I Never Learnt to Share’. Yet Enough Thunder lends itself to Blake’s vocals and the leniency he has given to a sparser yet more traditionally glitchy sound. There is no post-album letdown here, and the boy, yet again, has me captive in my bedroom with my headphones on.