James Blunt is no ordinary man. His combustible concoction of scruffy good looks and searing eyes coupled with a romantic wit and musical abilities have already produced some of the best music of our era.
If one was contained by her editors to narrow down the artist’s delicious tunes into the best ten, this would be the result:
1 – “No Bravery”
And the last (“Back to Bedlam” track) shall be first. “No Bravery” is so poignantly glorious, with diving, pouncing piano chords serving as a haunting backdrop to deadly firsthand observations of “a nation blind to their disgrace” since the destructive he “has been here.”
Where’s here? In Kosovo, where Capt. J Blunt LG (the only reference to his military ranking in the entire CD’s sleeve) served as a part of the NATO peacekeeping force.
“I wrote it lying by my tank in my sleeping bag with my boots on,” Blunt said. “The song is pretty fatalistic.”
Listeners can almost taste the “smell of death…in the air” with Blunt as we twist our mouths in distanced pain at reports of the “child afraid to even cry out” and “wives and daughters cut and raped” from the British ex-reconnaissance officer.
“We saw some things that were truly revolting,” Blunt recalled. “…there were people whose children or mothers or grandparents were slaughtered in obscene circumstances.”
With its gut-wrenching observations of atrocities witnessed, “No Bravery” is doozy of a hymn on its way to becoming the war-is-hell anthem of all time when mainstream rotation catches up to it.
2 – “Fall at Your Feet” (Acoustic)
Blunt’s rendition of Crowded House’s “Fall at Your Feet” is other worldly. Believe me. In only 145 seconds (by the by, why are songs so lightening-fast these days?) Blunt morphs a quiet beginning into a rousing rumpus that sends you straight into the stratosphere.
“I’m really close tonight,” he begins, almost inaudibly, eventually swelling to fill the listening space with harsh, violent guitar strumming. Heads nod in admission as Blunt delivers the gut-felt recognition that “the finger of blame has turned upon itself,” ascending this remake close to the summit of the list.
3 – “High”
Fittingly placed first on “Back to Bedlam,” this soaring song is indeed an epic opener. High” paints a portrait of magenta sunrays bursting forth over waves lapping against a stretch of deserted beach at a “beautiful dawn (beautiful dawn)” that Blunt personifies as Creator.
I picture him all alone with his God-given supersized talent, throwing out a parenthetical (with you) in the first stanza as an obligatory aside to his Petra-pretty hottie of the moment.
After I absorb “High” in stalker-like succession, it becomes obvious that Blunt’s powers of pure observation are alien to the common man. By noticing specks of brilliant diamonds melting as a coal black sky fades into dawn’s early pink light, Blunt proves he is a deep-feeling soul. You’re just blowing our minds again, too, Blunt…
4 – “Tears and Rain”
“Oh…my…God,” I think I said upon first hearing the name Dorian Gray in the searing, superbly straining chorus of “Tears and Rain.” You know that feeling when you think you’re the only one enamored by an obscure (at least by modern-day MTV standards) persona? Then when someone else talks about them you feel like you’re not the only nerd in the world?
That’s the camaraderie I experienced upon hearing Blunt site the lead character in the book and movie The Picture of Dorian Gray, about a handsome young man who sells his soul to the devil for eternal youth.
“Hides my true shape, like Dorian Gray,” sings Blunt, who alludes to an ugliness hiding within, like the painting of Gray sequestered in his attic that grows more hideous with every evil deed done.
Whatever the connection, Blunt is the first man since Sting to send me scurrying back to encyclopedias to figure out his writings. I love a man with brains.
5 – “Goodbye My Lover”
Attribute the echoing, powerful piano solo on this Blunt-described “miserable” track to the fact that he recorded it in the bathroom of actress Carrie Fisher – his former landlady, ad hoc therapist and relentless champion. (Did Fisher ‘Surrender the Pink’ to the pretty boy? No evidence was found of any weird Sunset Boulevard-like May-December fling.)
While loos have long been legendary for their great acoustic effects, again it’s Blount’s longing pleas coupled with his supreme melodies rendered in a withering voice that makes for pure magic.
“I know you well, I know your smell,” he almost whispers, embarrassed with intimacy. Next he makes just about every woman with a womb swoon with hope by promising, “I’d be the father of your child.”
By the time he leads out with the infectious riff, “I’m so, hollow baby. I’m so hollow. I’m so…I’m so…I’m so hollow…” us fangirls are fawning for more…
6 – In a Little While (Whiley Session U2 Cover)
“James, are you ready?” a woman asks at the top of this live track, from the “High Pt. 1” CD single.
“We’re good to go,” Blunt answers, before delving into the deeply moving “In a Little While,” a song Bono wrote originally about a heartbreak hangover. But after listening to it through Joey Ramone’s ears as the punk pioneer lay dying, Bono now views it as the transcendent, spiritual song it always was.
Blunt captures the anguish of a man looking heaven in the face so exquisitely by crooning:
In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I’ll be home, love
In a little while
I won’t be blown by every breeze
Friday night running to Sunday on my knees
After Blunt’s strumming halts, the live crowd at UK’s Jo Whiley Radio Show explodes into fervent applause. “So much love in one room for one man,” the woman gushes, translating the sound of complete adoration. She is by far not alone.
7 – You’re Beautiful (the version you’ve heard a billion times, but the acoustic one’s not bad either)
With its rare, did-he-mean-to-do-that-oh-he’s-so-complex “My life is brilliant” false start, this second track is pure brilliance, beyond the surface beauty many assume Blunt is singing about. Deeper review of the anthem (an easy feat in its heavily-rotated state) reveals it as the thinking-man’s anthem to unrequited love.
Even deeper Googling reveals that maybe it is all about surface beauty – a string of beauties! – and much-requited-then-dumped love, at least according Blunt’s ex. “Everybody thinks ‘You’re Beautiful’ was written about me,” Camilla Boler told the Daily Mail. But it was reportedly inspired by a different ex, Dixie Chassay.
Knowing the backstory lends even more melancholy to the song, and produces in the listener a smidge of the trepidation Boler always felt upon hearing the last line of the song Blunt dedicated to her on her birthday, a prophecy that foretold it would really be her experiencing lost love: “I will never be with you.”
Maybe Blunt should’ve dedicated song #5 on this list that night instead.
8 – “Cry”
If my bootlegged copy of “Breathe” from the Up Close EP was any better, it might’ve knocked “Cry” down one spot. Alas, since a concertgoer’s shrieks are almost louder than Blunt’s delivery of rousing, manly lyrics over the driving, manly beat in “Breathe,” the penultimate “Cry” from “Bedlam” wins this slot.
“Lie here on the floor and crrrrrrrrrrry on my shoulder,” Blunt wails in an angelic chorus. He has said it’s an ode to “relationships you build in…extreme circumstances.” Once again it proves that this is a real man who cares beyond the mock bravado and crappy façade of machismo that many ‘testosteronies’ adopt these days.
9 – “Billy” and “So Long, Jimmy” (tie)
Yes – placing two tracks here is my ploy to squeeze more of beautiful Blunt’s work into this decalogue of delightfulness. Blunt’s cadence is par excellence when singing about the mysterious title-tracked Billy, who “admits it took too long to admit” he was wrong.
As for the falsely upbeat “So Long, Jimmy,” Blunt says it’s about his friend Jimmy, himself, and Jimi Hendrix. They all kind of jibe together anyway with the lines:
Digging how the guitar goes,
In a song that no one knows.
Did you lick that line yourself,
Or did the voodoo magic help?”
It makes sense that “So Long, Jimmy” is the only song on “Bedlam” that lists Blunt’s name as Jimmy (what his parents call him) instead of his typical James. Anyhoo, I envision the hella-popular James Blunt looking back at his days of “chilling out on the sofa” with the trio of Jimmys (Hendrix via a sound system, I hope) in a nostalgic haze of non-fame, anonymity that the megastar will never know again.
10 – “Wisemen”
A thumping, steady beat drives this track, with lyrics that insatiably compel you to decipher their meaning, as studiously as one must squint to make out the Blount family motto “LUX TUA VIS MEA” on the hot air balloon floating on the same page in his “Bedlam” CD sleeve. Turns out the motto means “Your light is my strength.”
Harder to uncover is Blunt’s spiritual background. Is he a Christian? I wondered, as do many others who hotly debate this fact on message boards throughout cyberspace. “Wisemen” as well as other songs (like “Tears and Rain”) certainly reference biblical stuff:
How I wish I could choose between Heaven and Hell
How I wish I would save my soul
You can! I scream silently back at my CD, hoping I’m not being lulled and entranced by the anti-Christ, only by a young man struggling with his faith, one who will say yes to Yeshua before indeed “the prodigal son is too late.”
Reference:
- James Blunt 2006 Tour Dates – Buy Tickets Centre Bell Montreal, QC Sunday 10/1/2006 7:30 PM Scotiabank Place Kanata, ON Monday 10/2/2006 8:00 PM Air Canada Centre – ON Toronto, ON Tuesday 10/3/2006 8:00 PM A J Palumbo Center Pittsburgh, PA Thursday 10/5/2006 7:30 PM Tweeter Center-nj Camden, NJ Friday 10/6/2006 8:00 PM Dunkin Donuts Arena Providence, RI Saturday 10/7/2006 7:30 PM Chevrolet Theatre formerly Oakdale Theatre Wallingford, CT Monday 10/9/2006 7:30 PM Radio City Music Hall New York, NY Tuesday 10/10/2006 8:00 PM Radio City Music Hall New York, NY Wednesday 10/11/2006 8:00 PM Merriweather Post Pavilion Columbia, MD Friday 10/13/2006 6:30 PM Charlotte Bobcats Arena Charlotte, NC Saturday 10/14/2006 TBD The Arena at Gwinnett Center Duluth, GA Sunday 10/15/2006 8:00 PM Louisville Palace Louisville, KY Tuesday 10/17/2006 7:30 PM Playhouse Square Theatre Cleveland, OH Wednesday 10/18/2006 7:30 PM Fox Theatre-mi Detroit, MI Thursday 10/19/2006 7:30 PM Conseco Fieldhouse Indianapolis, IN Friday 10/20/2006 7:30 PM Assembly Hall-IL Champaign, IL Saturday 10/21/2006 7:30 PM Aragon Ballroom Chicago, IL Monday 10/23/2006 7:30 PM Rave / Eagles Ballroom Milwaukee, WI Tuesday 10/24/2006 7:30 PM Savvis Center Saint Louis, MO Wednesday 10/25/2006 7:30 PM Memorial Hall – Ks Kansas City, KS Thursday 10/26/2006 7:30 PM Magness Arena Denver, CO Saturday 10/28/2006 8:00 PM Qwest Center Omaha, NE Sunday 10/29/2006 7:30 PM Northrop Auditorium Minneapolis, MN Monday 10/30/2006 7:30 PM Mts Centre Winnipeg, Mb Tuesday 10/31/2006 TBD Rexall Place Edmonton, AB Thursday 11/2/2006 7:30 PM Pengrowth Saddledome Calgary, AB Friday 11/3/2006 TBD General Motors Place Vancouver, BC Sunday 11/5/2006 7:30 PM Everett Event Center Everett, WA Monday 11/6/2006 7:00 PM Rose Garden Portland, OR Tuesday 11/7/2006 8:00 PM Sacramento Memorial Auditorium Sacramento, CA Thursday 11/9/2006 TBD San Jose State University Event Center San Jose, CA Friday 11/10/2006 8:00 PM Paramount Theatre-ca Oakland, CA Saturday 11/11/2006 8:00 PM Paramount Theatre-ca Oakland, CA Sunday 11/12/2006 8:00 PM ipayOne Center at the San Diego Sports Arena San Diego, CA Tuesday 11/14/2006 8:00 PM Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City Walk Universal City, CA Wednesday 11/15/2006 8:15 PM Dodge Theatre Phoenix, AZ Friday 11/17/2006 8:00 PM The Joint – Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas, NV Saturday 11/18/2006 8:00 PM ‘Goodbye, My Lover’ Performance
