Why James Blake's New Album 𝘛𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 is Exactly Where We Are

James Blake's new album is something that needs to be discussed, especially at this critical juncture in history that we have no choice but to live in. The British singer has been on a tear lately on his run of crafting beautifully dissonant and atmospheric records that vacuum you into the abyss of melancholy he wants you to feel. Trying Times is the culmination of Blake's evolution as magical producer, storyteller, singer.

With the world falling apart with stubborn geopolitical tensions, wars, institutional collapse, and the overarching uncertainty of what the heck we are actually doing, the British singer's devastating new record may be what we need to be listening to right now.

Who can forget Blake's explosion onto the scene with "Retrograde" from his 2013 project Overgrown, that launched him as an artist to keep an eye on and also led him to winning a Grammy for Best New Artist. Before that, his self-titled album saw him break through the alternative music scene with his cover of Feist's "Limit To Your Love," that added his own electronic sprinklings throughout the rendition.

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A visualizer video for James Blake's title track for his latest LP Trying Times

Trying Times sees the British savant deconstruct an amalgamation of ideas with his signature floaty electronic sonic choices that doesn't try to be as abstract as his more recent LPs. He is also dropping this album independently via Good Boy Records, which is a spirited choice considering how personal he gets on this record with the ground he gets to cover both sonically and lyrically.

Blake's last record Playing Robots Into Heaven leaned more into the abstract and spacey, an acquired taste of a project for the average listener to digest. This is not an overtly political record or a protest statement in any sense, but an aural painting of how we continue to love while we hold on for dear life in a world that is slowly eroding.

"Walk Out Music" is the album's curtain raiser with Blake's signature spacey ethos setting a bleak tone with pitched up vocals that croon "You're no good to anyone, dead."

"Death of Love" captures feeling as dejected as one can be, wrapped in a blanket of haunting harmonies, basslines that sound like they were recorded inside a cave, and ghostly pacing that you can't really resist following. "I don't know how we got here, I think we might be sleeping, I think we might be walking to the death of love," the singer croons.

"I Had a Dream She Took My Hand" is probably one of the cuts off the record that is Blake at his most romantic and melodic, with the song starting off with a sample of the doo-wop classic "It Was Only a Dream" by Joey Quiñonez & Thee Sinseers. The British artist takes his own liberties with surreal imagery via his dreamy lyrics. The production morphs the slow dance-forward horn section into a fever dream of harmonies and a dissipating memory of a truly special love. The third verse is where the track gets soul-crushing: "she began to dissolve along with her soul, I couldn't remember her face, remember her name." Blake pulls us into this feeling of grieving and rejection of the present.

A live music video for I Hade a Dream She Took My Hand

The record's title track "Trying Times" is Blake at his most succinct instrumentation-wise. This is why it has the most replay value and is a generational epitome of trying to scrape by the skin of our teeth to stay alive through these grim times for those we stick our necks out for. On first listen, the guitars and basslines were dead ringers for Mac Miller's posthumous masterpiece "Good News," which also shares this cozy, chill ballad feel with Blake's single.

We're gonna be using "you're a sight for sore eyes" and "you're the life force I would die for" as terms of endearment way more often because of this embodiment of lowkey, weary-eyed, indie greatness.

"Make Something Up" picks up where the titular track left off musically and cranks the guitar amps up for a bigger stadium feel.

More dreary songwriting from Blake as he tackles moments in relationships you are rarely ready for that eventually spell the death of a once vibrant bond. "Well, it's not fair when a car becomes a hearse, we never rehearsed for that," dark stuff from the Brit. And the bridge does not even let us off the hook with the dark ideas: "when I'm stood up on that bridge and the voices compel me, even though I don't want to die, what's the word for that?" — leaving the picture open-ended for the hopeless.

Blake employs the help of Chicago singer Monica Martin for "Didn't Come To Argue," which plays around with compelling vocal stems that could almost make it on a bunch of old Kanye West records if you stretched it out into a hip-hop frame. "Came here for love, left with uncertainty," are just some of the lines that are devastating but masterfully shrouded in a vintage vocal pop sheen. The falsettos in this bad boy are killer.

Blake's live performance of Death of Love

"Days Go By," which ushers in the second half of the LP, is starkly different in tone as Blake turns on the brightness with both the electronic chopped up vocals and upbeat horns. "What have I been chasing when I could have been chasing you?" It is quite jarring at first hearing this transition, but it's a you either hate it or love it kind of switch up since the major key melodies resemble stuff played in one of the various temples from the Legend of Zelda video game series.

"Doesn't Just Happen,"Blake's collab track with UK hip-hop superstar Dave, is also where critics question where the song actually fits in because it causes the momentum of the melancholic beauty Blake is evoking to come to a screeching halt for a more moody electronic rap cut. It's hard to disagree as it feels like it's from a totally different project, where the record could have made its lasting statement as it closes out. "Obsession" is one of those piano ballads that leave you wanting more and a landing point instead of an abrupt end.

"Rest of Your Life" is if you went into a nightclub run by deities in an 8-bit dungeon before a final boss fight in a Japanese role-playing game. "Through the High Wire" is a glitchy ballad with a bunch of poignant musings. "I don't know what to believe, but I know people love a story, and the whispers change 'til we all fall from glory," the Brit croons. "We know you are hurting, we hear your call, sometimes I wonder if we know anything at all."

"Feel It Again" is a short track that employs synth stabs that sound like they could land on a Bon Iver album, but Blake's embellishments translate into something more soulful. Blake's album closes out with "Just A Little Higher" on a more reflective and somber note. The singer is trying to nudge us into a better place than where we are now historically. No matter how chaotic and hopeless things seem to get, we gotta hold on.