Music / James Blake

"It is only ever a good thing to talk about what is on your mind. Please don't allow people who fear their own feelings to ever subliminally shame you out of getting anything off your chest, or identifying with music that helps you. There is no great victory in machismo and bravado in the end. The road to mental health and happiness, which I feel so passionately about, is paved with honesty."

— Excerpt from James' response to Pitchfork deriding him as "sad boy music"

James Blake (born James Blake Litherland on September 26, 1988) is a British singer, songwriter, and producer.

The son of Progressive Rock musician James Litherland, Blake was exposed to music production from a young age and went on to study popular music in college while immersing himself in the UK dubstep scene. His earliest releases were strictly dubstep EPs, but by his first LP, he had developed a Signature Style that was essentially a Genre Mashup of dubstep and R&B with soulful vocals, somber lyrics, and sparse electronic instrumentation.

Blake has released four albums since then, as well as an EP's worth of covers of popular songs by the likes of Frank Ocean, Billie Eilish, and more. He also contributed to several songs on the Black Panther (2018) soundtrack, performed a song for the soundtrack of Euphoria, and produced hits by artists including Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and Beyoncé. He additionally made an album's worth of ambient soundscapes for a German software company. Yeah, he's well-rounded.

Blake's solo music is most notable for its emotional honesty, with raw, expressive lyrics touching on topics such as love, loneliness, regret, and grief, complemented by minimal, moody electronic instrumentation. Having struggled with depression throughout much of his life, he uses both his music and his platform as a musician to advocate against toxic masculinity and in favor of mental health awareness. As of late, his lyrical output has also focused heavily on his relationship with actress Jameela Jamil, who he has been dating since 2015.

Discography:

Albums:

• James Blake (2011)
• Overgrown (2013)
• The Colour In Anything (2016)
• Assume Form (2019)
• Friends That Break Your Heart (2021)
• Wind Down (2022)^note Ambient soundscapes made in collaboration with German software company Endel
• Playing Robots Into Heaven (2023)

Extended Plays:

• The Bells Sketch (2010)
• CMYK (2010)
• Klavierwerke (2010)
• Enough Thunder (2011)
• Love What Happened Here (2011)
• 200 Press (2014)
• Before (2020)
• Covers (2020)

James Blake provides examples of:

• Always Someone Better: His relationship to Finneas O'Connell in the "Say What You Will" video, in which, no matter what James is doing, Finneas pops up out of nowhere to one-up him, to James' evident dismay.
• Break Up Song: He has quite a few, as loss and loneliness are among his most prominent lyrical motifs. "Life Is Not The Same" is probably the strongest example of a straightforward breakup song, though.
• Broken Record: Repetition features very prominently in his self-titled album, particularly in "The Wilhelm Scream", "I Never Learnt to Share", and especially "I Mind", which is literally just the words "I mind" and "pussy" repeated ad nauseam.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The songs he's written about his relationship with Jameela frame her as a boon for his mental health who helped him out of his depression and renewed his lust for life.
• Cover Version: "Vincent" is a cover of a Don McLean song, "Limit To Your Love" is a cover of a Feist song, and "The Wilhelm Scream" is a cover of "Where to Turn" by James Litherland, who is actually James Blake's own father. Additionally, the entire Covers EP is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Because he's been releasing moody electronica for several years now and achieved most of his fame through doing so, most consider it to be his Signature Style, which makes his earlier Dubstep-adjacent output seem almost like it was made by a different artist entirely.
• Face on the Cover: James Blake and Assume Form. Friends That Break Your Heart also has James' face on the cover, though it's a bit, uh, roughed up.
• Friendship Song: "Friends That Break Your Heart" is a darker take on the trope: while it does concern The Power of Friendship, it's more about how devastating it is to lose a friend than how fulfilling it is to have one in the first place.
  And as many loves that have crossed my path
  In the end, it was friends (x3)
  It was friends who broke my heart
• Grief Song: As his work frequently grapples with loss (see Break Up Song), songs lamenting the dead or otherwise gone-from-his-life pop up every now and then. His cover of Don McLean's "Vincent" is probably the strongest and most heartrending example.
• Lighter and Softer: In contrast to his pre-Jameela output which was largely very broody and somber, his post-Jameela output has an optimistic bent and an eye on recovery even when exploring darker themes.
• Longest Song Goes Last: "If I'm Insecure", which clocks in at nearly five minutes long, on Friends That Break Your Heart. Inverted with Overgrown, where the longest track (which also happens to be the Title Track) is actually first.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: Assume Form, which features songs about overcoming insecurities, finding joy and love in life for the first time, and lamenting the years lost to depression and loneliness. Exemplified in "Power On", in which he looks back on his old toxic and self-deprecating tendencies and reflects on how much he's grown.
  I thought I might be better dead, but I was wrong
  I thought everything could fade, but I was wrong
  I thought I'd never find my place, but I was wrong
• Moment of Lucidity: SwaVay's verse on "Frozen" goes on a rambling streak about an encounter with James and fellow featured artist JID that ends with James killing them both, then veers into this:
  He killed us both, but did he do it?
  Maybe I'm the one who had the gun
  Or maybe I made it up
  Okay, maybe you're right, I am crazy, I'm sorry
• Non-Appearing Title: Nearly all of his older works, though as he's come to focus his musical output more on lyrical expression than sonic experimentation, much fewer of his newer works.
• Ode to Apathy: "Say What You Will" has James informing those who would criticize him for his life and career choices that he's content with where he's at and they can, naturally, "say what they will" without it affecting him.
• Self-Titled Album: His first full-length album is named James Blake.
• Silly Love Song: "I'll Come Too", one of James' more upbeat and happy songs, describes "the inception of a new love and that moment where you're aimlessly following this person wherever you can".
• Step Up to the Microphone:
  • While James' contributions as a featured artist are typically only on the production side, Beyoncé essentially gave him a whole song to himself in Lemonade's "Forward".
  • His shift, marked by his self-titled album, to using his own vocals rather than relying only on samples could also be seen as this.
• Title-Only Chorus: The chorus of "I'm So Blessed You're Mine" is just the title, verbatim, repeated a bunch of times, with some occasional "girl" and "okay" ad-libs.
• Title Track: Overgrown, The Colour in Anything, Assume Form, and Friends That Break Your Heart all have one of these.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: James has provided production for plenty of rappers, and they often return the favor by providing guest features on his own songs. Examples include "Take A Fall For Me" with RZA, "Mile High" with Travis Scott, "Where's the Catch?" with Andre 3000, "Frozen" with JID and SwaVay, and "Funeral" with slowthai.
• Wilhelm Scream: While the Wilhelm itself is not actually used in the song, his 2011 single "The Wilhelm Scream" is named after it and, through frequent lyrical reference to "falling", references the most common use of the Wilhelm (that is, in scenes of people falling off of high surfaces).