Defend the Indefensible: James Blunt

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Bob Dylan technically can't really sing but dammit he's knows his boundaries.

hahahaha SO not otm!

― swvl (vozick), Friday, 3 March 2006 01:36 (twenty years ago)

Can't stand the man, he belongs on a Dawsons Creek soundtrack alongside David Gray and Dido circa 2000-2001. Please go away Mr Blunt.

― Miranda Leigh (Miranda Leigh), Friday, 3 March 2006 03:09 (twenty years ago)

you go away!

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 3 March 2006 03:15 (twenty years ago)

Don't get your knickers into a twist, everyone has their own opinion and i think he's crap.

― Miranda Leigh (Miranda Leigh), Friday, 3 March 2006 03:19 (twenty years ago)

James Blunt has certainly known conflict -- he was a member of the British Army and served in Kosovo -- but now, as a singer and songwriter, he goes out of his way to avoid conflict, tension, or any other kind of distinguishing energy. His repetitive and well-mannered ballad "You're Beautiful" is creeping toward the top of the American charts as part of its obligatory life as a song before it becomes the perfume commercial it was born to be. Blunt's assets, if you can call them that, are a weak falsetto and a fearless decision to include the word "fucking" in this under-annotated composition about seeing a woman once and falling in love. It happens, sure, but Blunt's description of the fateful moment is as banal as the music: a Starbucks-friendly quilt of nylon-string classical guitar, mandolin, neutered drums, and a timid, depressive chord sequence. Those of us old enough to remember England Dan and John Ford Coley miss them terribly.
--Sasha Frere-Jones in this week's New Yorker

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), March 2nd, 2006. (jaymc)

Yeah, Sash, but the same accusations of banality & timidness could easily be directed towards your pet artiste, Keren Ann. It don't get more Starbucks than that, dude!

(i have yet to hear Mr. Blunt, but his name is classic if only as an irritant to Mr. Blount)

― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 3 March 2006 09:08 (twenty years ago)

if by 'irritant' you mean 'endless source of amusement'

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 3 March 2006 09:14 (twenty years ago)

if you say so, jb.

― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 3 March 2006 09:17 (twenty years ago)

I can't be the only person who clicked on this thinking it was about James Blount.

But his real name IS James Blount!

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 March 2006 12:10 (twenty years ago)

There's been other blunts before, there will be more in the future. Just ignore this one and it will go away.

― blunt (blunt), Friday, 3 March 2006 12:14 (twenty years ago)

Almost certainly no relation:

http://www.cbmr.org/pro/images/Sun-Ra.jpg

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 March 2006 12:19 (twenty years ago)

http://www.megascreen.ca/art/snoop.gif

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 3 March 2006 12:22 (twenty years ago)

Unfortunately no images available of "Bertie Blunt, His Parrot's a Cunt"

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 March 2006 12:26 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

Ha ha WHAT THE FUCK:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=26931089&blogID=52032004&MyToken=14240ca5-75ed-4b29-9505-e65c503f2051

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 18 March 2006 11:25 (twenty years ago)

If you look at that guy's MySpace profile, he has Mickey Avalon as one of his friends. I guess when it comes to crap, he gets on at the ground floor.

― naus (Robert T), Saturday, 18 March 2006 14:50 (twenty years ago)

So, let me get this straight:

You thought he was shit, but you thought you could make a heap of money out of him and his limp, lifeless songs and ridiculous voice by selling it to people who don't like music, and, oh, boo-hoo, someone else poached him from you before you could squeeze the cash out of him. Cry me a river! That's a pretty self-interested version of "karma" you've got.

Sonned.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Saturday, 18 March 2006 15:02 (twenty years ago)

That "You're Beautiful" song is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS on the radio. Man this James Blunt guy sounds like Rod Stewart.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 18 March 2006 18:18 (twenty years ago)

So, um, he can form his vowels correctly when he sings.

I still think he's doing something wrong with his vowels.

― O-Keigh (O-Keigh), Saturday, 18 March 2006 21:09 (twenty years ago)

In following links back I came across this story. I should think it's anonymous because anyone willing to put their name to this would need the gentle caresses of an iron boot:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4701924.stm

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 18 March 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

I took a listen to this guy recently. I really expected better considering all the critical accolades on his ads. Man, this is white shite. Not worth Tim Buckley's fingernail.

― The Sound of Walls (Bimble...), Sunday, 19 March 2006 13:48 (twenty years ago)

I thought JB was indefensible, then I heard Hard Fi. Then I saw the lead singer from Hard Fi. Case closed...

― gekkopppel, Sunday, 19 March 2006 19:57 (twenty years ago)

I had a customer return the CD because of the one swear word adn no warning sitcker....jesus!

what i want to know is how many people has he killed ? he said in an interview with a Sydney paper that when he was doing "recon" his seargent told them they were'nt doing there job right if they returned with all there bullets

― grapple (grapple), Monday, 20 March 2006 00:17 (twenty years ago)

So is anyone actually going to go with the thread title and defend him?

All the singaporean girls in my office love him. They sit around a pc together and listen to the song and get emotional. I don't mention this because it has any significance vis a vis quality, but it's interesting.

― Jacob (Jacob), Monday, 20 March 2006 00:57 (twenty years ago)

gekkopppel OTM

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 20 March 2006 01:12 (twenty years ago)

The only thing I can myster in defense of this awful, awful song is that the chord change on the line "And I don't know what to do" is midldy unpredictable in relation to the interchangeable circle-of-fifths shit that comprises the rest of that fucking thing.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 20 March 2006 04:50 (twenty years ago)

Wikipedia: In a TV4 Nyhetsmorgon interview, he mentioned that he had been shot at more times than 50 Cent.

Shot at. Not shot -- shot at.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 20 March 2006 12:27 (twenty years ago)

heh heh...England Dan and John Ford Coley...

― hank s (hank s), Monday, 20 March 2006 22:17 (twenty years ago)

This past weekend I was in Boston for my annual fantasy baseball draft, a day-long affair with 14 other guys getting shitfaced and comparing the relative merits of Brian McCann vs Kenji Jojhima. We realized during that afternoon that James is in fact doing a very bad Katharine Hepburn impersonation for most of that song. It's a remarkably short line from "she was WITH anutha MAHN" to "the calla lilies are in bloom" . . . but it's even more fun to deliver the lyric in full Ethel Merman bombast. In fact, that's just what I'll do next time I do karaoke.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 01:55 (twenty years ago)

YES! That's what I was trying to put a finger on!

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 12:50 (twenty years ago)

Some ice dancing couple used this song for their exhibition skate at the World Figure Skating championships yesterday.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 27 March 2006 18:07 (twenty years ago)

James is in fact doing a very bad Katharine Hepburn impersonation
Find me a girl who can sing like Cary Grant and I'll bankroll "The Philadelphia Story: The Musical".

― O-Keigh (O-Keigh), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:57 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Blunt has got a message for us folks !

James Blunt delivered a blunt message to his “bastard” detractors yesterday – telling them at least his music is “getting me laid”.
http://www.gigwise.com/news.asp?contentid=17616

He said, “To all those bastards who don’t like my music who don’t like my music – you’re all adults, you can switch your radio off.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 26 May 2006 12:16 (twenty years ago)

apparently one of the things he learned during his time in the army was how to pilot a ROFLcopter

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Friday, 26 May 2006 12:39 (twenty years ago)

“getting me laid”

i guess that was his plan.

― a.b. (alanbanana), Friday, 26 May 2006 12:43 (twenty years ago)

Singing in a fake weird mid atlantic accent repeating the words "your Beautiful" like a parrot = "getting me laid" according to Blunt

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 26 May 2006 12:47 (twenty years ago)

probably v true tho

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 26 May 2006 12:50 (twenty years ago)

He said, “To all those bastards who don’t like my music who don’t like my music – you’re all adults, you can switch your radio off.

Did he say "who don't like my music" twice because he came in too early for his backing track?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 26 May 2006 12:57 (twenty years ago)

the man has a point, and he's laughing all the way to the bank if he's for real.

the pussy bank, that is.

― Emily B (Emily B), Friday, 26 May 2006 13:31 (twenty years ago)

The NRO makes a discovery.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 5 June 2006 16:59 (twenty years ago)

On patrol around Pristina, he kept his guitar bolted to the outside of his tank.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 5 June 2006 17:33 (twenty years ago)

"This guitar kills separatists."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 5 June 2006 17:50 (twenty years ago)

On patrol around Pristina, he kept his guitar bolted to the outside of his tank.

you can saee them now can't you - staring moodily into their coffee in the mountain fastnesses of Kosovo, haunted, not by what they did during the war, but by what they didn't do........ as 'you're beautiful' comes on the radio.......again

― sonofstan (sonofstan), Monday, 5 June 2006 19:51 (twenty years ago)

"This tank contains Blunt"

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 08:02 (twenty years ago)

The missing link between David Gray and Ronan Keating.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 09:31 (twenty years ago)

is Blunt the most laughable AOR star since david hasselhoff ?

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 10:41 (twenty years ago)

Ned beat me to it. DAMN.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 11:54 (twenty years ago)

Is that a good thing or a bad thing for you Geir? (he's pretty melodic no?)

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:52 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

"We will license these records, in movies, TV and commercials...Trust me, you will hear these records."

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 04:36 (eighteen years ago)

Good thing President Bush doesn't negotiate with terrorists who make threats like this. A black helicopter is hopefully on its way to Warner Music Group right now.

― Cunga, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 04:51 (eighteen years ago)

so awful.

― W4LTER, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 04:58 (eighteen years ago)

I quite liked his version of Young Folks.

― Alba, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 08:29 (eighteen years ago)

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