In the second last Friday Flash(back) before the Easter/mid-year break, lets re-meet James Blake Litherland.
In 2024, Blake left Polydor Records and formed his own production house and record label, as part of his brand CMYK Group.
In May 2024, he released his first single as an independent artist, Thrown Around. The following month, Blake released the EP CMYK 002 and Bad Cameo, a collaborative album with Lil Yachty.
Blake contributed Séance, a track created with Ludwig Göransson, to the Sinners (2025) film soundtrack after Göransson (the film's composer) approached him and offered to collaborate.
In January, Blake released the song Death of Love as the first single from his seventh studio album Trying Times, which was released last Friday, through independent label Good Boy Records.
James Blake is known for his emotive, soulful light head voice and use of falsetto, he first gained recognition following the release of three extended plays—The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke—in 2010. He signed with A&M Records to release his self-titled debut album (2011) the following year, which was met with critical praise and peaked within the top ten of the UK Albums Chart.
Blake departed A&M in favour of sister label Republic Records, on which he released his second album, Overgrown (2013) to further critical and commercial success; it likewise peaked within the chart's top ten and moderately entered the US Billboard 200.
His third album, The Colour in Anything (2016), was followed by his 2018 single King's Dead (with Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Future), which peaked at number 50 on the UK Singles Chart and number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its success foresaw the release of his fourth album, Assume Form (2019), which became his highest-charting entry on both the UK Albums Chart and Billboard 200.
His fifth, sixth, and seventh studio albums, Friends That Break Your Heart (2021), Playing Robots Into Heaven (2023), Trying Times (2026), followed thereafter.
Blake has written and produced work for other artists, Often doing so with his partner Jameela Jamil and others including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Rosalía, Strick, JID, Travis Scott, Normani, Oneohtrix Point Never, Dominic Maker, and Justin Vernon.
He has won a Mercury Prize from two nominations, two Grammy Awards from nine nominations, a Latin Grammy Award, and three Brit Award nominations.
So ahead of Easter, let's chill, to some incredible music from James Blake. The season finale will land this time next week.
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