“Where’s the Catch?”: James Blake ft. André 3000
Production: James Blake
Album: Assume Form
Exorcism, pessimism has arisen/ There's no reason really, treason to myself so silly/ So perfect, so perfect, so why do I look for curtains?
A decade ago, the U.K. was introduced to James Blake, boy wonder. Within a few years he became pop music’s favourite melancholic songwriter. Much has changed in this time, but the music remains as allusive as ever. Blake has worked with artists as varied as Beyonce, Travis Scott and Oneohtrix Point Never, providing the lane for their memory trips.
‘Where’s the Catch?’, deploys a similar formula, an uneasy piano paves the way for Blake’s wariness. Misery do love features, and this is one of Andre 3000’s most accomplished. Wordplay, alliteration, and entendres all mingle, whilst never threatening miracle-lyrical kitsch. The song ends unresolved, with scepticism bookending the song. That scepticism is at once their fate and their power.