In a recent interview with The Boston Phoenix, James Blake, part singer-songwriter, part dubstep prophet, hit out at the emerging frat-boy market for the genre he helped launch. "There's this macho-ism being reflected in the sounds and the way the music makes you feel. And to me, that is a million miles away from where dubstep started.” On his debut Mercury-nominated LP, released earlier this year, Blake oscillated between dubstep’s sensory barrage and singer-songwriting's fragile melancholy. It was his expert handling of such opposing forces, constantly seeming to be on the brink of losing control, which made that album one of the most spellbinding listens in recent memory.

Enough Thunder finds Blake at the same junction - but he has turned towards balladry more than ever before. The record’s finest moment in fact features no bass at all. Originally recorded for a live Radio 1 session back in February, Blake’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You,” is undoubtedly a career highlight. Accompanied by only piano chimes, the listener finds Blake at his most exposed, crooning like there’s no one else left in the universe, bare but not bromidic.

Blake’s long awaited collaboration with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, “Fall Creek Boys Choir,” is certainly worth the wait, even if it fails to take as many risks as it probably should. Vernon’s lyrics are barely audible but create an astral daydream for the listener to sink into and surrender to.

The EP is the perfect companion piece to Blake’s debut LP: treading through the scorched earth left behind after the blaze burning in its sister album, most exemplified in creaking opener “Once We All Agree.” Ultimately, Enough Thunder is not James Blake’s next classic release; it’s a stop-gap compilation of curiosities and oddities, albeit one that leaves the listening aching to know which direction the auteur will take next on the continuous crossroads that has defined his career. The clues are all here. The album title gives it all away, Blake is done with thunder, post-dubstep, and wherever he goes next will be somewhere astonishing.