James Blake - The Sound of Silence [2015]

As the two-and-a-half year anniversary of James Blake's last full-length project Overgrown approaches, any sort of re-up is welcomed. The singer-songwriter-producer extraordinaire does not disappoint with his recent BBC Radio cover of Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 classic The Sound of Silence. In maintaining its solemn, gospel quality and rejuvenating it with his own synth organ production, Blake manages to make the song feel like one of his own without compromising any of the original's strengths. None other than Justin Vernon appears to back Blake up with some beautiful vocal harmonies, making for a raw, choir-like atmosphere. The haunting sirens that open and close the track mirror the melody of the original and give the listener the impression of panning into a small, dimly lit church where the duos' echoes ring among the empty pews and then back out again into the bustling London streets.