Song · James Blake
“Retrograde” by James Blake
From the album Overgrown (2013)
“Retrograde” by James Blake appears on 7 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 2013 and 2025. It was first released in 2013 on the album Overgrown. Its best result is #13 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2013. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #166 alternative song of 2013.
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Video from YouTube (JamesBlakeVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Retrograde" arrived as a digital download on 11 February 2013, the lead single from James Blake's second album, Overgrown, and it came out on Polydor. It's about as solitary as a pop record gets: the English producer and singer-songwriter wrote it, played it, sang it, engineered it, produced it and mixed it himself, with nobody else's name in the credits.
That self-sufficiency is the whole mood. The song feels hushed and interior, a bedroom-studio confession blown up to widescreen. Martin de Thurah directed the video.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 57 | WXPN Philadelphia, PA | WXPN Year in Review: Top 200 Songs of 2013 | 200 |
| 2013 | 27 | The Current Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | The Current Top 89 Songs of 2013 | 89 |
| 2013 | 62 | WTMD Baltimore, MD | WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2013 | 89 |
| 2013 | 13 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 2013 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 715 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium (2013) | 885 |
| 2018 | 289 | WTMD | WTMD Listeners' Top 897 Songs, 2003-2018 | 896 |
| 2025 | 738 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century | 909 |
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