James Blake Breaks Our Heart
Excellent Songs of Friends and Loss
James Blake’s fifth studio album, “Friends That Break Your Heart” paints a cohesive and careworn picture of a specific kind of breakup: a betrayal by close friends. Coming two years after his critically acclaimed release “Assume Form”, 2021’s “Friends That Break Your Heart” is a ballad-driven album about different kinds of grief, curiosity, and acceptance.
The loss of friendships feels topical for many of us after an isolated year spent watching some relationships grow closer and others dissipate without an explanation. And yet, this specific kind of heartache is often relegated to second-tier grief, behind a romantic breakup. Blake charts these under-explored waters with the same kind of poise and poignance that he’s shown for other sensitive topics, such as mental health, social issues, and yes, romance. A friendship is “a kind of relationship that doesn’t have a protocol for when it ends,” reflects Blake. “With romantic relationships, we know what to do and we know what to expect. Love songs and films have told us and other people know what to expect of us when we’re heartbroken in that way. Friendship breakups don’t carry the same level of acknowledged gravitas. People just go: ‘Well, you can get more friends. There are plenty more of those'”.
“Friends That Break Your Heart” is less focused on understanding friendship’s vagaries and betrayals than remarking upon their impact. The album is accepting, not angry. It sounds like the work of an artist who has processed a loss, and finds that they still have a few things to say on the matter. “And I can’t believe I’m still talking about you”, muses Blake on the album’s opener “Famous Last Words”. “You’re the last of my old things”, he croons, and the album that follows feels like an homage to what was lost in the process of releasing these “old things.” Losing a friend, implies Blake means letting go of old comforts and cares, the remnants of a unique and chosen intimacy.
The album pulls from Blake’s established lexicon of interrupted electronics, pulsing synths, and distorted samples, with the welcome addition here of guitar, strings, and graceful Mellotron. Blake’s vocals are mostly unfettered, soaring up into a mournful falsetto free of vocoded backing or even much vibrato. The songs often feel almost unusually traditional for Blake, known for his industry-innovating production choices. Instead, Blake seems most interested in having us hear and understand his lyrics, which are delicate, but direct. “In the end / it was friends who broke my heart,” sings Blake on the album’s title track, offering less commentary about the loss than simple observation. It happened, and it hurt – Blake seems to be content with letting the listener sit with this kind of unembellished honesty.
Known for his collaborations with the likes of Kanye, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, and others, it makes sense that Blake’s latest album about close friendships also touches on his career. Blake describes the track “Say What You Will” as “my favorite song I’ve written in a long, long time.” It speaks to his life, career, and, according to Blake, “the place I’ve arrived at, hopefully.” The features on “Friends That Break Your Heart” all support this kind of steady confidence. Artists like SZA, JID, and Swavay enhance the tracks that they’re featured on, and Monica Martin’s addition to “Show Me” is a particularly moving one. Her smoky harmonies (which you might recognize from art-pop project Phox) elevate the song past lingering melancholy into an aching elegy for what might have been. “I hope the person after / gets all that you held from me / They get to be a fresh start / while I am another casualty,” croon Blake and Martin together, capping off the cycle of loss with this bittersweet ode to the future.
Ultimately, “Friends That Break Your Heart” is mournful, but not in mourning. On the closing track “If I’m Insecure”, Blake plays with opposites to embrace the power that comes from having loved someone, even if they’ve since moved on or moved away. “If I’m insecure / how have I been so sure / that I’m gonna care for you / ‘til I am no more” sings Blake steadily over a rising organ tone. The impact of loving someone so deeply feels certain, even if the relationship itself stumbles to an unsteady end – an idea that’s underlined by the final, delayed drumbeat of the album falling well after the final track has already wrapped up. Moving on from a friendship might never feel neat or conclusive, and according to Blake, “it hurts like the end of the world.” But with the release of “Friends That Break Your Heart”, Blake shows that it’s possible to find and feel like yourself again after such a loss – may be even discovering new colors and collaborators along the way.
Released on October 8th after a delay from vinyl factories due to COVID, “Friends That Break Your Heart” is Blake’s first album to feature a dedicated vinyl day, with the singer and producer writing on Instagram about how important a physical release is for this project. For a limited edition silver vinyl version of “Friends, That Break Your Heart”, check out Rough Trade in NYC and the UK.
