Blunt's music speaks (softly)

Blunt's music speaks (softly)
Salt Lake Tribune - United States
If you think James Blunt is a bit of a softy based on his monster hit of a ballad, "You're Beautiful," you should hear the shy Brit talk. ...
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If you think James Blunt is a bit of a softy based on his monster hit of a ballad, "You're Beautiful," you should hear the shy Brit talk.

Chatting from the Cleveland stop on Blunt's first U.S. headlining tour 9 a tour in which every gig sold out almost instantly 9 his voice rarely reached above a whisper, except for a few lively moments when his thickly accented diction spiked up to "normal."

Clichéd as it may seem, this fledgling superstar is more comfortable letting his music do the talking.

The spotlight on Blunt has magnified a thousandfold since his first album, "Back to Bedlam," debuted in England in 2004 and in the states last summer. To date, the album has sold nearly 8 million copies worldwide and gone to No. 1 in 16 countries. It sits at No. 2 on the American album charts; "You're Beautiful" hit No. 1 on the singles chart a couple of weeks back and is hanging strong at No. 4.

All the success and numbers being thrown at Blunt have left the 29-year-old him a bit dazed.
w=8.3 "I'm busy. Very busy," Blunt, 29, said, adding that he's already been touring for a year and has another 10 months ahead of him. "There's not much time to stop and think. But I'm doing what I always wanted to do, music. r

"Things change fast, and . . . I have to get used to the different stages [of fame] very quickly."

No kidding. Just consider the trajectory of the former British Army officer's career. After getting out of the military about four years ago, Blunt started playing gigs around London and eventually got a manager. He was sent to the South By Southwest Music Conference in 2003, when producer Linda Perry (who has worked with Christina Aguilera and Pink) saw Blunt and signed him to her label, an Atlantic Records subsidiary. One L.A. recording stint later, Blunt had a monster debut on his hands.

"Back to Bedlam" shows Blunt is a more dynamic tunesmith than the straightforward, acoustic-based ballad "You're Beautiful" might suggest. While that song is indicative of the mellow approach throughout "Back to Bedlam," it's a sunnier tune, lyrically speaking, than some others on the album like "Goodbye My Lover," "Tears and Rain" or "Cry." Under Blunt's distinct vocals, the music is atmospheric and moody.

It doesn't hurt that Blunt has what USA Today aptly called "poster appeal 9 tousled hair, bedroom eyes, chiseled features and full mouth." The combination of the music and the messenger has obviously struck a chord.

"I'm definitely surprised at the way it's taken off," Blunt said. "I had in mind when I first started doing this that I'd like to make one copy and hold it up in the air and say, 'These are my songs.' Then I got myself a record deal and I thought I'd like to keep my record deal so I could make a second record. And to do that, I was told I needed to sell about 100,000 copies.

"I thought, 'Wow, 100,000 copies! That's more than I can possibly. I don't know 100,000 people.' So getting that to happen was a big deal. Then somewhere along the line it went over 100,000 to 8 million, and that's a bit much for me to take on. That's quite a big pile of albums."

Considering the fast start to his career, that pile could grow a lot before Blunt's done.
nailen@sltrib.com