''Blackfield IV'' is the fourth studio album by

Blackfield Blackfield is a collaborative music project by the English musician and founder of Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, and Israeli rock singer Aviv Geffen. Together, six albums have been released under the moniker. The first two records, ''Blackfi ...

, the musical collaboration by

Aviv Geffen Aviv Geffen ( he, אביב גפן, born 10 May 1973) is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter and the son of writer and poet Yehonatan Geffen and Nurit Makover, brother of actress Shira Geffen, and an alumnus of Rimon School of Jazz and Co ...

and

Steven Wilson Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosio ...

. Similar to their third album, '' Welcome to My DNA'', Geffen has taken over more active duties on the album while Wilson focuses on his solo career. The album was released on 26 August 2013.

Background

Over the course of 2010 and early 2011, the two creative directors of

were split over two musical projects;

wrote and recorded his second solo studio album, ''

Grace for Drowning ''Grace for Drowning'' is the second solo studio album by Steven Wilson, producer, songwriter, and frontman of Porcupine Tree. It was released by Kscope on 26 September 2011 as a double album. The album received a nomination at the 54th Annual G ...

'', and as a result,

would take more creative control over Blackfield's third studio album, '' Welcome to My DNA''. After both albums' release and promotion, in December 2011, Wilson stated that his various music projects, Blackfield included, would be put on hold, while he focused further on his solo career. Contrary to this announcement, less than a month later in January 2012, Geffen announced his intentions to release a fourth Blackfield album by as soon as May 2012. This prompted Wilson to announce that his role would continue to lessen, with Wilson acting only as a contributor and mixer. Wilson said of the band's future:

...just to clarify news elsewhere of a new Blackfield album coming this year – please note that this time my involvement will be as a contributor rather than a member. I will still be mixing the album, and maybe sing on a couple of Aviv’s songs (there will be other guest singers I understand), but with my complete blessing Blackfield is now under his sole curatorship, a process which really began with ''Welcome to My DNA''"

Wilson later admitted that it was his own idea for Geffen to take over the project, because Wilson wanted to concentrate on his solo career in 2012 and 2013, while Geffen wanted to do another Blackfield album right away in 2012, and Wilson felt guilty about holding him back.

Writing and recording

Work on the album started shortly after Geffen's initial announcement. On 29 and 30 January, both Geffen and Wilson began work on vocal and guitar parts in the studio. The two were accompanied by one of the guest vocalists that Wilson had alluded to before, which was revealed to be

Vincent Cavanagh Vincent Cavanagh (born 29 August 1973 in Liverpool) is an English singer and guitarist best known as a co-founder (and the sole constant member) of British rock band Anathema. Vincent took over as Anathema's vocalist following the departure of ...

of the band

Anathema Anathema, in common usage, is something or someone detested or shunned. In its other main usage, it is a formal excommunication. The latter meaning, its ecclesiastical sense, is based on New Testament usage. In the Old Testament, anathema was a cr ...

, who recorded vocals for a track, "XRay". Due to Wilson focusing on the recording of his third solo album, ''

The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) ''The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)'' is the third solo album by British musician Steven Wilson, released by Kscope Music Records on 25 February 2013. Each track on the album is based on a story of the supernatural. Alan Parson ...

'', Wilson would not write any of the songs for the album. He only contributed lead vocals to one song, "Jupiter", though he did also contribute "a bunch of guitar parts" and "helped him arrange some of the backing vocals". Specifically, Wilson provided backing vocals and guitar to the track "Pills", and backing vocals for "Sense of Insanity". Despite his lessened role, he still said that he was "protective of the Blackfield legacy", and that the next album would "still sound like a quintessential Blackfield album." Wilson later reiterated his role on the album:

I won’t say producing he fourth album I am only helping effen a bit of singing, guitar, mixing whatever it takes but I am not going to tour, it’ll be too much, I’ll kill myself, would just run myself to the ground. I won’t tour Blackfield anymore but I will do anything to keep the name going...I just don’t think that writing the kind of style that Blackfield make is where I am at right now.

Despite Wilson's focus on his solo career, Geffen pressed forward with the album, writing around thirty tracks for the album before whittling it down to the strongest eleven tracks for the final release. On 14 June 2012 Geffen announced he was in the final mixing stages of the album with Wilson. By November 2012, Geffen stated that he roughly aimed for an April 2013 release time frame. Wilson confirmed that he sang and played guitar on several tracks, but "much less than before", that Geffen was able to get "a bunch of great singers to contribute to the record, some of whom are quite well known", and that the album would be the first that Geffen would consent to be mixed for surround sound. In June 2013, the other guest appearances were announced to including

Brett Anderson Brett Lewis Anderson (born 29 September 1967) is an English singer best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he fronted The Tears with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler in 2004-2 ...

Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was fir ...

, Jonathan Donahue of

Mercury Rev Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.
Original personnel were The album's sound came from a variety of different areas. Geffen strove to keep the music a mixture of

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

, pop, and symphonic pop, being influenced by bands such as

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

Blonde Redhead Blonde Redhead is an American alternative rock band composed of Kazu Makino (vocals, keys/rhythm guitar) and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace (drums/keys and lead guitar/bass/keys/vocals, respectively) that formed in New York City in 1993. ...

, that cannot be pigeon-holed into one specific genre. Specific tracks possessed individual influences as well; "Jupiter" was influenced by 1970s

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

, "After the Rain"'s

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

edge was influenced by

dub step Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step garage, 2-step rhythms and sparse dub reggae, dub production, as well as incorporati ...

, and "Firefly" was influenced by

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

and

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

, while "Pills" was an attempt to create a song that sounded like it was off of the original ''

'' album.

Release and promotion

On 25 February 2013 Wilson released his third solo album, ''

''. Some copies contained a compilation disc of music done by artists under record label Kscope; one track being Blackfield's "Pills", premiering half a year prior to the release of ''Blackfield IV''. On 9 June 2013 it was announced that the fourth album would officially be titled ''Blackfield IV'', and its release date would be 26 August 2013. The band premiered a

sand art Sand art may refer to: *Sand art and play, e.g. Sculpturing "building sand castles" *Sandpainting *Sand drawing *Sand mandalas, Buddhist sand paintings *Sand animation Sand animation is the manipulation of sand to create animation. In performa ...

-based music video for the track "Jupiter" on 25 July 2013. The track "Pills" was made available for free download as well.

Reception

Reception for the album has been mixed, with critics divided over Wilson's smaller role on the album.

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

music journalist Chad Bowar gave the album a 4 out of 5 star rating, praising it for combining "beautiful acoustic passages, luscious melodies and straightforward rock" and especially noting the

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

tion and guest appearance of Vincent Cavanagh as standout features. Conversely, Bryce Ezel of

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

was more critical of the album, awarding it only a 5 of 10, stating that while some of the songs were good, the magic from the first two albums, ''Blackfield'' and ''

Blackfield II ''Blackfield II'' is the second studio album by Blackfield. It was recorded in both Tel Aviv and London, and was released on 13 February 2007 in Europe and 6 March 2007 in the US. We Put Out Records launched media siterelating to the US release ...

'', was lost due to the lack of collaboration between Geffen and Wilson on the album. "Pills", "Jupiter", and "Sense of Insanity", all tracks Wilson contributed to, were noted as standouts because "''IV'' demonstrates that Blackfield is at its finest when it is being what it initially set out to be—not the band it now has to become because the circumstances require it to be so."

Track listing

Personnel

;Blackfield *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

– lead vocals on "Jupiter", backing vocals on "Pills", "Sense of Insanity" and "Lost Souls", guitars *

Seffy Efrati Monica Sex ( he, מוניקה סקס; also spelled Monika Sex) is an Israeli alternative rock band. History Formation and ''Wounds and Kisses'' (1993–1995) The band was formed in 1992 in Tel Aviv, by Yali Sobol as vocalist and guitarist, Pete ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Tomer Z Tomer Zidkyahu (known under his stage name Tomer Z) is the drummer for the band Blackfield. He joined the band in 2004 after departure of the previous drummer Chris Maitland Chris Maitland (born 13 May 1964) is an English drummer. Maitland ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Eran Mitelman –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

;Guest musicians *

- vocals on "X-Ray" *

- vocals on "Firefly" *

Jonathan Donahue Jonathan Daniel Donahue (born May 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the frontman and a founding member of Mercury Rev, with whom he has released nine studio albums since 1991. He is also a former member of The Flaming Lips ...

- vocals on "The Only Fool Is Me" ;Production *

- producer *

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

Charts

References

{{Authority control Blackfield albums 2013 albums Kscope albums