Saturday, January 17, 2009

#30 Blake Lewis, "How Many Words"



Right back where we started,
Falling apart at the seams
You tagged your name on my heart and
I sat there and let it bleed


Please do not read too much into this not be a PG-top-five-smash as it easily would have been in 2007, when I fell madly in love with Audio Day Dream to a degree I've rarely if ever matched with another album. It's by far the most underrated American pop album to come out in the past few years and marked Blake living up to every hope I had for him from American Idol and more. In fact, he could have released any song from that album and easily made it onto my 2007 chart. "How Many Words" is a BRILLIANT Erasure-esque pop sort-of-ballad which I love with every bit of my heart, a heart broken by the fact that most of the world will never know songs like "End Of The World," which, much as I love "How Many Words," should probably have been the choice for the second single. I suppose I shouldn't complain about single choice too much--from the moment we saw the no-expenses-spared music video for his debut single "Break Anotha," it was obvious the label, failing to get quick and easy radio support, had given up on the whole album project, so getting a second single at all was a bonus. "How Many Words" is still one of the album's highlights, and Blake's influences and musical loves, when channeled through a pop lens as they are here and on his album, made him the best American artist going.

Find it on: Audio Day Dream

7 comments:

John said...

Blake called...he's SEVERELY disappointed, but claims that you can still have "I Ran" show up on the countdown later if you'd like to make it up to him.

Yuяi said...

Well, Blake called me and wanted me to pass along his sincere thanks that he's appearing on someone's 2008 charts!

"End of the World" could have been a Top 5 for him with the correct marketing/promo.

Aaron said...

Well - Yes. I quite liked this album - Really rather Quirky, but this was a standout - It's sad to think we probably won't get another album from him....

Nikki said...

LOVE this track, it was another one of those tracks that I loved before it was released then it failed miserably(as if his singles career could drop any lower..).

The only promotion I saw of this was his performance on the small Idol stage, not even the top twelve! It was so annoying.

Agreed! His album is so underrated that it's painful. Ugh, you're making me listen to his album again! Darn it, this is all your fault! haha.

Poster Girl said...

John, tell Blake if he covers "Space Age Love Song" instead--straight up, not danced up--then maybe he can be my Last.fm avatar again. Then we'll talk.

Yuri, I like to think that it could have been, too. By the way, thank you to you and John for passing along his messages! He must have lost my phone number.

Aaron, in good news apparently he's actually got a new record deal and it's going to be announced soon. I expect it's a very minor/indie sort of deal, but what worries me about that is that maybe without a major label pushing him to be commercial he won't be as "pop" and so won't make music that lines up as much with my taste. Proper electronica is more the sort of music he actually listens to and, though I've got some appreciation for that genre, I'm much more of a pop girl. Still, any Blake music we can get, I'll take.

Nikki, it really got no promotion at all. Not that I was surprised, but it was a shame. Ha ha, I'm glad I got someone listening to it again! ;)

Myfizzypop said...

Blake had so many good tracks that could've been singles from that album, and alas i feel the time has passed for it to become huge in England too :( Boooo. His second album better be as massive. (creatively, it needs to be MASSIVE commercially!)

Poster Girl said...

As I was saying above, I'm so nervous that his next album won't be as brilliant, or, more accurately probably, won't be in line with my tastes :-/