Friends That Break Your Heart

by James Blake

Overview

James Blake's discography has experienced a gradual thaw. While still mired in heartbreak and discontentment, the production on 2016's The Colour in Anything brightened up just a touch from the stark atmospheres of Blake's groundbreaking earlier records. His fourth album, Assume Form, felt a few degrees warmer as well, with several songs that offset his signature melancholy with feelings of springy joy and the giddy excitement of new love. Fifth album Friends That Break Your Heart continues the emotional climate change that the producer/songwriter has been experimenting with, landing largely as a friendly pop record, even while holding on to traces of the pain and loneliness that are inextricable from Blake's music. A string of straightforward and uncomplex songs open the album. The spare "Famous Last Words" flows affably through subtle synth lines and increasingly layered vocals, opening up into a sweet swell of strings and romantic harmonies just before winding down. "Life Is Not the Same" brings back the skeletal piano chords, clicky drum programming, and unexpected production turns of Blake's early work, but anchors the song's more free-floating qualities with a soaring chorus. It commits to dynamism in a way that's almost anthemic by James Blake standards, wallowing in heartbreak but still delivering a hooky chorus. The melodic harpsichord samples and swimmy synth arpeggios of "Coming Back" are so complimentary of guest collaborator SZA's vocals, it's almost too soon when her verse ends and Blake's wispy falsetto returns. The album moves through a few different modes as it goes on, including the chipper post-breakup shrugging of "Foot Forward," the catchy and hypnotic sample-bending of "I'm So Blessed You're Mine," and "Frozen," a continuation of Blake's collaboration with high-profile rappers that finds SwaVay and JID executing sharp verses over an eerie, creeping instrumental. Even though Friends That Break Your Heart travels a winding path from experimental rap tracks to the tender balladry that makes up the majority of its final quarter, it's still one of the more accessible, and occasionally predictable, collections of material from Blake. Sounding like it was created from the other side of the crushing sadness that defined his earliest work, the album continues Blake's incremental shift to lighter material and songs that lean more into acceptance than torment. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date:	10/08/2021
Label:	Republic
UPC:	0602438624775

Album Credits

Performance Credits

James Blake   Primary Artist,Vocals,Keyboards,Wurlitzer,Synthesizer,Piano (Electric),Synthesizer Bass
SZA   Primary Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
slowthai   Primary Artist
SwaVay   Primary Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
Monica Martin   Primary Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
JID   Primary Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
Hal Ritson   Bass,Piano,Guitar
Rick Nowels   Keyboards,Mellotron,Fender Rhodes,Guitar (Acoustic)
Nathan Schram   Viola
Khushi   Vocals
Dominic Maker   Vocals
John Christopher Fee   Keyboards
Joji   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Tyler Arnold   A&R
Andre Jones   Composer
Randy Merrill   Mastering,Mastering Engineer
Khushi   Arranger,Engineer,Producer,Recording
Nico Muhly   Arranger,Composer,String Arrangements
Rick Nowels   Composer,Producer
Monica Martin   Composer
Metro Boomin   Producer
Leland Wayne   Composer
Solana Rowe   Composer
JID   Composer
Matt Burnette-Lemon   Package Production
Take a Daytrip   Mixing,Producer,Programming
Brittany Hazzard   Composer
Markell Casey   A&R
James Blake   Mixing,Arranger,Composer,Engineer,Producer,Recording,Programming,Drum Programming
Dominic Maker   Composer,Producer,Programming
Ali Tamposi   Composer
Adam Feeney   Composer
Denzel Baptiste   Composer
Tristan Hoogland   Engineer,Recording
David Biral   Composer
Destin Route   Composer
Rob Bisel   Engineer
Tyron Frampton   Composer
Kalim Patel   Composer
Josh Stadlen   Composer,Producer
Matthew Scatchell   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
Bradley Pinkerton   Graphic Design
Carl Bespolka   Engineer,Recording
Jameela Jamil   Arranger,Composer,Producer
Brad Bustamante   Engineer,Recording
Bryan Montesano   A&R,A&R Assistance
John Christopher Fee   Engineer
Miles Johnston   Artwork
Frank Dukes   Producer
Richard Adlam   Programming
Dan Hill   Composer
James Litherland   Composer
Barry Mann   Composer
George Miller   Composer
Dean Reid   Mixing
Tom Elmhirst   Mixing,Programming
Joji   Producer