James Blake announces new album “Trying Times”: listen to the single “Death Of Love”

James Blake returns with a new chapter in his discography. Following his recent Piano Solo tour, which also brought him to Italy, the British producer and songwriter has announced “Trying Times”, an album due out Friday 13 March via Good Boy Records/Virgin Music Group.

Three days ago James Blake sent his fans to the site tryingtimes.info. By entering a password, users were taken to a page containing a message from Blake announcing a new album: “Hello everyone. To thank you for your support, I wanted to share some news with you early. I've finished my next album and I'll be releasing it soon. I'll be sharing a song with you and also offering a special vinyl edition of the album's first pressing. The link to listen and buy will be live for 72 hours. I can't wait for you to hear the new album, it's really special”.

The album is preceded by the single "Death Of Love", accompanied by a live video directed by the duo Harrison & Adair. The performance is set in an office, lit by artificial light: Blake is joined by the London Welsh Men's Choir. Musically, "Death Of Love" moves along essential, luminous gospel lines, with Blake's voice at the centre, wrapped in the choir, while a trap-inflected rhythm programming drives its pace.

Watch the video for "Death Of Love" below.

“Trying Times” comes across as a work suspended between intimacy and unease, in keeping with an increasingly reflective phase of his artistry. In 2024 Blake released the single “Like The End”, which marked a shift from his previous work, moving away both from the electronic minimalism of his early records and from the more club-oriented influences of his most recent albums. The track stood out for a production that edges toward post-rock, with digital elements evoking dystopian atmospheres, while its instrumental crescendo and tonal palette recall the aesthetic of albums like “OK Computer” by Radiohead and the early work of Muse. The track, however, does not appear on the tracklist of the new album, which we present below.

1. Walk Out Music
2. Death Of Love
3. I Had A Dream She Took My Hand
4. Trying Times
5. Make Something Up
6. Didn’t Come To Argue (Feat. Monica Martin)
7. Days Go By
8. Doesn’t Just Happen (Feat. Dave)
9. Obsession
10. Rest Of Your Life
11. Through The High Wire
12. Feel It Again
13. Just A Little Higher

Among Blake's recent collaborations, one that stands out is his work with Dave on "The Boy Who Played The Harp", as well as "Séance", made together with Ludwig Göransson for the soundtrack of "Sinners", the new film by Ryan Coogler that has just landed 16 Oscar nominations. Around the same time came a collaborative album with Lil Yachty: their new joint album "Bad Cameo" brought together the eclectic styles of two of the most innovative artists in the music industry, redrawing its boundaries.

Meanwhile, Blake continues to weigh in on the debate over unfair streaming payouts, putting forward an alternative model through the project Vault, a platform that allows artists to upload unreleased music and set a monthly fee for access to exclusive content, offering a fairer alternative without intermediaries. "You can't expect to buy all the music on the planet for $10 a month," Blake stresses, following his outburst a few weeks ago on X against the meagre royalties offered by streaming platforms and TikTok. "After my tweets," he explains in a video message, "I was contacted by some platform creators, and it made sense to join forces to find a way out. That's why we're launching Vault.fm, to show that music has an intrinsic value that goes beyond mere visibility. For the first time, I'll be releasing unreleased music from my archive."

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