I'd agree this is his best album to date. Out of all the material I've heard from him, this is definitely the stuff I've enjoyed most consistently. Though it still succumbed to fate of all his albums for me, which is the tracks eventually all blurring into each other. He's successfully carved out unique and personal sound which is an achievement in and of itself; it's certainly more that can be said for a lot of artists. But even his deftly executed combination of smooth, lofi chords, half-time beats, and ghostly vocal textures do become trite after a while. Contrast exists for a reason. 'Points' gets my pick as the best track for that reason. It surprised me when that lurching, bass-heavy beat came in, which I'm sucker for. And I loved how the alarm sound built into the string sounding chords at the end. For me it stood out in all aspects from the rest of the album. One thing I can take from James Blake is a masterclass in presenting a minimal amount of materials for a large effect. My pieces almost always end up densely layered, for better or worse.
I hear a mix of really obvious genre influences in his sound, especially after my ongoing Radiohead binge, so I'm hesitant to say he's crafted a personal sound. Maybe personal, but not a unique one. After avoiding this album for some time, while people kept telling me its his best work, I finally gave it a try. Overall, I'd say we got a talented-ass vocalist who might have a knack for making music, but blew up before he had the chance to mature to anything valuable. I'd look forward to him fading out a bit and coming back with some spicy nicey.
That's a reasonably fair assessment. Creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum and I agree that some clear influences prevail through his sound. But then I can listen to Radiohead and hear clear influences coming through their music too. Admittedly more developed than Blake's, but they're there all the same. After thinking about it further, 'unique' was probably the wrong word, what I meant was 'novel'. He presents and contextualises his influences in a somewhat novel way, which has been emulated by quite a few others. I guess that's not on the level of being 'unique,' but still an achievement. Though I definitely agree that it feels like this iteration of his sound has run its course. I've never been that big of a James Blake fan and this album has done nothing to show me that he is, like you put it, maturing. He's perfected a certain aesthetic and at this point it feels like art is turning into craft.
I felt that way about the pieces too. I wanted to say that it's an artistic choice because of the lyrical narrative throughout the album, but it is very common of him to end up having his pieces blur together like that. After listening to the album throughout the day Point's returns to my favorite piece. The end is what hits me the hardest. Just the way it has that build-up, then just cuts off completely. I may be looking too far into it, but it was supposed to be just this build-up of feelings followed by the immediate realization that they were not for the person she had become.