Review Summary: "I'm so hollow, baby. i'm so. I'm So. I'M. SO. HOOLLOOWW!"
At this point of time James Blunt is a complete joke; hell, his very own name has become rhyming slang for, as James himself proudly proclaims, “the good stuff.” It should be rather telling, too, that James acknowledges his own uselessness in the world. Like how most of his Tweets consist of hilarious comebacks to haters (and conversations with Ed Sheeran that carry strong homoerotic undertones) or his publicly condemning of his very own song “You’re Beautiful.”
Quote:
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“You're Beautiful… became annoying and then people start to associate the artist with the same word.”
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Considering how James has practically fallen under the radar since his minor hit “Stay the Night,” it would be safe to say that what miniscule a fanbase he gathered from his debut album has now dwindled to the point of near transparency. And I wouldn’t blame them either,
Some Kind of Trouble was an atrocious ear sore of an album (yes, surprisingly worse than that soap opera called
Back to Bedlam) and he hadn’t released a good album since 2007’s
All the Lost Souls. So with practically no promotion at all, James’ upcoming album could have been a modern
Metal Machine Music. No matter how awful it could be, it wouldn’t even have any impact on him whatsoever and he could just have a good laugh about what little media coverage it would receive in a rundown cabin in the woods somewhere living off of leftovers from garbage cans.
Curiously, however,
Moon Landing is no
Metal Machine Music. It’s no doubt an improvement over his last one, but… Something is just really missing. His previous albums can be memorable for reasons ranging from being memorable or offensively nauseating, but
Moon Landing just isn’t as memorable as it should be.
The lead single “Bonfire Heart” (co-written by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who has also co-written songs on the previous abomination) is inoffensively catchy but unlike his previous hit “Stay the Night,” it fails to leave much of an impression. Unfortunately, most of the album is just that: inoffensively catchy. Even though I’m writing this review after listening to this album for the umpteenth time, I just can’t place a finger on what the chorus was on most of the songs on this tracklisting.
Despite this, the few songs that are memorable are surprisingly not only catchy but also beautiful. Opening track “Face the Sun” is same ol’ love struck Blunt, but while it lacks a concrete chorus, the song builds up to a fantastic climax. The next song “Satellites” is equally as cheesy but its melody is too damn infectious to ignore.
Once the record reaches the fourth song, “Heart to Heart,” it becomes rather clear that James has lost a lot of input in the songwriting end of things. While James made it clear in his condemnation of “You’re Beautiful” that he’s anything but a serious person, his songs were best when he wasn’t being melodramatic (e.g. “Goodbye My Lover” and “I Really Want You”) but something
semi-serious (e.g. Every other song on his
All the Lost Souls album). Songs “Heart to Heart” onward to the final track “Blue on Blue” are catchy but, at the end of the day, are utterly forgettable due to a lack of James Blunt’s identity in the story each song tells because they’re so goddam happy.
Any song to be found on this album, while adequately performed, lack the emotion of his first two albums and capitalize on a more shallow character that modern pop has been more demanding of. If one were to look at the instrumental credits in James’ first two albums, it would be quite the shocker to see how talented a man he is. His first album alone credits him for playing 13 different instruments for the entire album. On this album he doesn’t touch a single instrument. And I repeat,
jack shit. At a glance that doesn’t sound like it would affect much but on the last album he only had his guitar so clearly the numerous writers he already collaborates with diminish his artistic integrity far too much. Also, “Heart to Heart” and “Postcards” are
Some Kind of Trouble tier awful so this guy really needs to stop letting his writers walk all over him like the pussy he is and start being creative like he was on his first two albums.
Indeed, while the album is essentially an identity crisis, it is still very much a pleasant listen, albeit strictly for dumb fun. However, considering the promise he had shown on
All the Lost Souls, it seems like it’ll take several more albums before he cracks and decides to release his
Metal Machine Music.
Rating: 2.2/5
