Blunt delivers heartfelt tunes of love, loss

Blunt delivers heartfelt tunes of love, loss
Deseret News - Salt Lake City,UT,USA
Like a teenage boy stuck in a suit that is too small, James Blunt already seems confined by the orchestrated tragedies of his debut album, "Back to Bedlam.". ...

By Josh Loftin
Deseret Morning News

JAMES BLUNT, The Depot, Friday.

Like a teenage boy stuck in a suit that is too small, James Blunt already
seems confined by the orchestrated tragedies of his debut album, "Back to
Bedlam."

Playing to a sold-out crowd at The Depot Friday night, the casually but
well-dressed Blunt happily delivered a hearty dose of his retro-cool piano rock,
especially during the first half of his 90-minute set. He also bookmarked the
show by closing the night with the whole reason for his overnight success, the
ubiquitous "You're Beautiful," a requiem for lost love that became an
enthusiastic sing-along for the crowd.

While the note-perfect renditions of such crowd favorites as "High" and
"Tears and Rain" — both of which could be easily mistaken for "You're Beautiful"
during their opening chords — surely pleased the Oprah-watching housewives who
seemingly made up almost half of the crowd (their husbands being the other
half), it was Blunt's musical stretching that actually highlighted the
show.

Songs anchored by lithe keyboards on his album, such as "Out of My Mind," "So
Long, Jimmy" and "Wisemen," became raucous rockers broadened with extended
guitar jams. And for his encore, he took an even more bold step by covering the
Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" which he pulled it off, even if his high-pitched
nasal vocals are no comparison to the ferocity of Black Francis.

Blunt is not afraid to yank fiercely at the heartstrings, whether it's by
emoting about lost love or, in the case of "No Bravery," recounting his
experiences as a British soldier in Kosovo. In concert, the powerful anti-war
(as in war is bad, not end all wars or protest the war in Iraq) song was
accompanied by video he shot while serving.

Yet for his occasional risk, two new songs, "Same Mistake" and "I Want You,"
hinted that Blunt is the consummate pop artist who will continue to give the
people what they want and not much more. "Same Mistake" was a Coldplay-esque
mid-tempo rock number that swelled to obnoxious levels by the end, while "I Want
You" was a soft, acoustic guitar number that one would suspect will be rounded
out in the studio.

Opening for Blunt was the ridiculously happy and quite enjoyable The Boy
Least Likely To, whose sunny, child-like pop actually obscures deeply
introspective and, at times, depressing lyrics. The band members define
optimism, bouncing stupidly in striped shirts and big smiles while singing lines
like "I don't think I'll ever be happy unless I'm unhappy."