hello guys & gals – so popbytes has a total new crush – i am blushing! his name is james blunt – he is an oh so talented singer/songwriter and very adorable – so my type! i kept hearing his name pop up here & there – and then i got a listen to his album back to bedlam (produced by super awesome linda perry‘s own label custard records – she is such a genius) and i was instantly smitten! then i caught the video for his single you’re beautiful that is making the rounds right now – he is so cute & puppy dog sad looking plus the song is just haunting – i love it…i am hooked on the blunt – and to boot he has a really interesting bio (he was a brit solider in kosovo) – he seems to have such an ‘old soul’ – something i really appreciate – as i can see that in myself sometimes (don’t forget i am a capricorn) – so please do yourself a favor and get a listen below to a track off his album back to bedlam – popbytes out for now – i am really glad tomorrow is saturday! xxoo
» listen to james blunt’s high – from the album back to bedlam (.mp3 4.8mb)
Some ageing rockstar once said that what he feared most, in a musical sense, was the songwriting well running dry. That’s something that’s unlikely ever to worry James Blunt. He has, it can be said without exaggeration, lived a life that should provide enough material for a dozen albums, with sufficient left over for a couple of screenplays. Sure – that’s what all the singer-songwriters say. But this is a definitively different singer-songwriter.
Take “No Bravery”, the song that closes his debut album, “Back to Bedlam”, for instance: It was written in Kosovo in 1999, while James was a reconnaissance officer in the British army. On patrol around Pristina, he kept his guitar bolted to the outside of his tank. But in quieter moments, it came out, as he wrote about life as a 22-year-old peacekeeper in the aftermath of one of the decade’s bloodiest civil wars. The rest of his unit ordered him to keep the noise down as he wrote and sang in the post-midnight stillness. He didn’t keep the noise down. “‘No Bravery’ is the only complete song I wrote in Kosovo. I wrote it lying by my tank in my sleeping bag with my boots on. You had to sleep with your boots on. The song is pretty fatalistic. The rest of the album is fatalistic,” he says wryly.
But his Kosovan experience is only one aspect of a new artist who’s destined to find his way into a lot of record collections. Essentially, James is a find – an old soul who’s somehow unafflicted by cynicism, a young writer who sounds likes he’s been doing this for years, an angelic voice who’s had a hell of a ride. Elton John, with whom he shares a manager, thinks “You’re Beautiful” is a modern successor to John’s own “Your Song”. An astute comparison, because much of “Back to Bedlam” is reminiscent of John’s early-career best. Meanwhile, Tom Rothrock, who produced the album, sees James as a potential British answer to a couple of other clients, Beck and Elliott Smith. Rothrock had never heard of James until he stumbled across a live track he performed at last year’s South by Southwest, upon which the producer was so smitten that he instantly agreed to work on “Back to Bedlam”…READ MORE
