James Blunt

[electricladyland]

i don't care much for this guy's voice...and this woman i work with has that song "you're beautiful" as a ring tone...it's driving me

 

[CharlottefromCA]

woman i work with has that song "you're beautiful" as a ring tone...it's driving me

... I imagine it would..

But I was watching MTV the other day and my male friend walked in and asked why he was taking off his clothes on the music video.. and I couldn't come up with an answer

 

[lacy99]

I think that if he hadn't written You're Beautiful, no-one would care about him, because it's that song that really made him famous.

 

[simple19892001]

I think his voice is kinda similar with Daniel Powter.

 

[waukon73]

I love the song Your Beautiful, but it annoys the hell out of me when people sing it. Espically people that aren't beautiful.

 

[adorefaith]

^ i quite like daniel powter too.....

 

[tifa]

This man makes my stomach churn. Please, stick him in a box with David Grey, Dido, Daniel Powter, Katie Melua and all those other boring non offensive 35 year olds dinner party music, please.

 

[adorefaith]

^ hey THATS what i'll call it from now on when people ask me what kind of music i like....
"non offensive 35 yr old dinner party music, mostly....".....
fantastic..... .....

 

[lacy99]

This man makes my stomach churn. Please, stick him in a box with David Grey, Dido, Daniel Powter, Katie Melua and all those other boring non offensive 35 year olds dinner party music, please.

Katie Melua for some reason irritates me so much! I can't stand listening to any of her songs.

 

[SuperWoman]

I love him! He's beautiful... Is he single?

 

[simple19892001]

I think her voice is OK. His songs is very nice too.

 

[Tinuviel]

his voice is rather nasal, but I did like You're Beautiful before they started overplaying it. the rest of the album isn't astounding.

 

[*wilde_darko*]

his name says it all!

 

[miss-lilly]

^ I cannot stand his voice! It drives me up the wall. Even if he isn't, he sounds as though he is putting on a falsetto. Eugh.

Totally agree!!

 

[visconti]

I feel this Kosovo thing and his aristocracy roots has been PR'ed to death and it just makes me mad coz there are sooooo many better artists that deserve all those accolade more than him!

Yes. That's my major issue with him. I try to have a general idea of what's going on with the UK charts, so I heard his big hit at one point last summer or early fall. It was bland. I quickly forgot about it.

Jump ahead 6 months or so. He's HUGE in the US too. I don't listen to radio, but I started hearing people talk about him + humming/singing his song. It's still the sort of thing I could imagine hearing at the bank where I worked during college.

A few weeks ago, after hearing more raves, I checked out his bio on this official US site. This is what really turned the tide.

" James Blunt’s family have served in one kind of army or another since 995A.D."

" From birth in a military hospital in Tidworth..."

"In essence, one day he was sleeping off a hangover at the back of a sociology lecture hall and the next thing he knew he was in Kosovo with a gun and a guitar strapped to the side of a tank, wondering who he could possibly sleep with to get out of this war. To break up the super attenuated monotony, James would sometimes stroll through Serb villages wearing an East German cap singing, “All we are saying is give peace a chance”. "

I can't stand this sort of marketing. I fear we (US and UK especially) are seeing the start of a new media trend. Any "artist" who has any connection to military service--- especially in the middle east--- will have immediate selling power. That's not to say that these guys haven't experienced things that could inspire great art, but, like Susie said, the talented/more experimental ones will remain unknowns, but the market will be flooded with even more middle of the road faux-heartfelt ballads that only hope to gain depth when viewed in light of the singer's military "heroism". I have no idea if James hoped for this sort of marketing. Probably not, but it turns his music from the sort of thing that I'd tune out if it were playing at a grocery store to something cringe inducing.

 

[larien]

he is very cool i love him and his songs.when i need calmness i just listen his album=))

 

[AlexN]

Awful...ridiculously overrated. SO bland. Incredibly predictable music and equally predictable lyrics. Ugh. This guy is a living, breathing formula.

 

[make_me_whole]

i think he's good though...his music is really attrative even that's not my type...there's always a reason why he's so popular...

 

[AlexN]

And that reason is because people like simple, predictable music with generic lyrics that they've heard before. He's a caricature of this type of stuff.

 

[waukon73]

^Yes. He does kind of suck, but it's good music to chill to.