Friends That Break Your Heart
| James Blake
Friends That Break Your Heart
Friends That Break Your Heart is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter and producer James Blake. It was released by Republic Records and Polydor Records on 8 October 2021, after initially being scheduled for release on 10 September 2021 before being postponed due to delays in physical production as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Variety
“Friends That Break Your Heart” is Blake’s best and most refined album to date, one that finds him further down the several paths he’s somehow simultaneously following: more conventional and more disruptive, prettier and more disturbing, all at the same time.
-
Pitchfork
A warm and even-keeled collection of ballads, this is James Blake’s most traditional album, but it offers little in the way of emotional insight.
-
Beats Per Minute
Friends That Break Your Heart is Blake at his most pared-back and unflinching lyrically and could also be considered his most accessible album yet. For some, this dismal balladry might feel a bit too far removed from the experimentally-textured electronics of his first two albums, yet Blake has found a brilliant way to still be unconventional and accessible at the same time. The bravery in baring his soul should always be applauded and respected for the contemplation, and confrontation Blake has gone through has produced one of his most affecting works yet.
-
The Guardian
The singer-songwriter articulates the pain of lost friendships against a backdrop of chamber music and trap pop.
-
NME
The singer and producer's fifth album digs deeper into introspection, atop some of his most impressive production to date.
-
Loud and Quiet
Where Blake’s past albums have sent analogue worlds into orbit, Friends That Break Your Heart instead feels like an office chair spinning into a discernible kaleidoscope of plastic and limbs. But as soon as the magic starts, a co-worker falls into the water cooler.
-
Consequence Sound
Love is messy, and friendship can be even messier. With this album, James Blake succeeds in tapping into the ways that these emotions can be tangled together, for better or for worse.
-
Our Culture
At its best, Friends That Break Your Heart is capable of turning blunt resignation into a stirring kind of hope.
-
DIY Magazine
A record that simultaneously expands on his delicate production and sees him fully embrace his singer-songwriter alter ego.
-
The Line of Best Fit
On Friends That Break Your Heart, James Blake remains a master of making heartbreak sound beautiful.
-
Epigram
With his fifth studio album, Grammy-winning producer James Blake is introspective as ever, but notably less adventurous than we’re used to.
-
The Independent
Few artists can make such heartbreak sound so pretty.
-
Riff Magazine
A step slightly left from his recent catalog’s intense melancholia, the small collection of songs paved the way for the experimentation and elegant stylings of his latest body of work, Friends That Break Your Heart.
-
Spectrum Culture
The album offers some of Blake’s strongest performances and production yet, which, combined with its relatively straightforward beauty, should be more than enough to quell any doubts that his music’s quality would dip with the sacrifice of his earlier experimentation.
-
The Needle Drop
James' best record since his debut.
-
Crack Magazine
Unlike a lost friend, this is all just so instantly forgettable. For an album so apparently stuffed with feeling, it’s strange to be left so deeply unmoved. But then maybe – to borrow that old get-out clause – it’s not you, it’s me.
-
Clash Magazine
The LP’s home stretch is up there with Blake’s best, not just in the tense penultimate title track and wet-cheeked closer ‘If I’m Insecure’, but on the lead single. ‘Say What You Will’ shows off the magic trick Blake’s perfected by now. Vocally, he’s unsettlingly beautiful.
-
Magnetic Magazine
The sound of James Blake’s voice is the grounding sound on this album and he has been one of the more unique voices over the past decade. The themes of love, loss and friendship aren’t totally new for Blake, but he approaches it from a slightly different angle this time.
-
The Spectrum
While his efforts as a producer, notably credited on every track, are nothing less than extraordinary, Blake’s voice is buried on a handful of tracks across the album. In another sense, this also allows the album to be looked at as more of an experience rather than a singer/songwriter album. After all, production on an album is simply music without words, and Blake can do that much better than most artists nowadays.
-
Under the Radar Magazine
It may present a lesser overall project—the first of his entire career, by the way—but Friends That Break Your Heart is the release of someone comfortable enough in their own artistry to develop uncomfortable ideas into compositions of unrivalled beauty. Blake remains a truly unique force in modern music. And for that we should all remain utterly grateful.
-
Stereoboard
'Friends That Break Your Heart' feels like the domain of high net worth ennui—the loneliness of a particular kind of privilege. There is plenty of good art that details that sentiment, but this is a bit too self-aware and in good taste to land an emotional punch. Maybe that's what he was aiming for.
-
Northern Transmissions
Listening to James Blake makes you feel alive, with all of life’s complicated emotions and realizations. With feelings of falling and rising, love and loss, vulnerability and bravery, you feel like you’ve gone on quite a trip listening to his latest album. A success if not a triumph of an album.
-
Exepose
Emotions ebb and flow through this album with ease, whether they’re channelled through flourishing vocals harmonised like nobody else, or Blake’s fearless experimental cut-and-stick playful production. He might’ve ended on an ‘insecure’ note, but Blake has undoubtedly secured himself yet again as a… yup, master, of his craft.
-
AllMusic
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.
-
Pseudodada
There was not only piano, but organs, synths, strings, and trap hi hats. He utilizes all of his talents and resources and refines them really impressively into a lean 44 minutes. There were some cool moments, but I did not feel the urge to skip a single song personally. In my opinion, this is his best record since Overgrown.
-
Gigwise
Some of Blake's best writing in years.
-
Hotpress
Swinging between bold, futuristic sounds and aching vulnerability, there’s nothing safe about Blake’s approach. But even at its most innovative, Friends... never feels inaccessible. Rather, it places him at the forefront of a movement of fearless, non-conformist pop – as he continues to explore the balance between restraint and unpredictability, with dazzling results.
-
wrbb radio
James Blake’s Friends That Break Your Heart is refreshingly straightforward.
-
The Irish Times
Though there are hints of levity, Blake remains a self-effacing lyricist, concerned with the complexities of inner worlds. The darkness is buoyed by some beautiful, melodic writing and spirited production on an album that, though perfectly serviceable, lacks the inventive spark of Blake’s best work.
-
The Mic Magazine
Friends That Break Your Heart is the finest James Blake record since his self-titled, and a wonderful and mature album in its own right. By honing his talents and concentrating on his strengths across a focused and thematically consistent track list he’s once again proven himself to be one of the most emotionally devastating musicians on the planet.
-
The Weekly Coos
Friends That Break Your Heart was something I was looking forward to, and it didn’t hit the mark as it should have. But there are a few songs that do, and most of which aren’t because of James.
-
The Communicator
With every listen, you’ll find more details to value and more layers left unexplored by the listener. “Friends That Break Your Heart” is easily one of James Blake’s best albums to date, showing that the magic that flourished throughout his self-titled debut never left.
-
Range
Friends That Break Your Heart somehow inspires a combined sense of empowerment and wistfulness, as well as the occasional need to bawl your eyes out.
-
Evening Standard
As ever, Blake experiments with his own voice too, starting Say What You Will with a deep croak. The whole thing is a refining of his style, but no great leap.
-
musicOMH
Throughout Friends That Break Your Heart, Blake is trying on different sounds, different styles, and producing some good music along the way, but he ends the record still unsure of where he should be.
-
Ben's Beat
James Blake has always had a couple of experimental surprises and emotionally affecting melodies crop up on his studio albums, but it’s never come together so consistently well on a subject so unfortunately relatable like this before as we all wait to finally be granted the privileges of having a social life again. Ten years in, and he might have delivered his best work yet.
-
Pop Smarts
The Indietronica artist’s latest record is more straightforward than his previous, but just as moving.
-
The Sydney Morning Herald
Indeed, there’s much to like on this expansive, thoughtful record – whether you’re at a party or on the loo.
-
The Ithacan
Blake in his purest form is still an emotionally potent artist; his use of melody separates him from many similar artists working in pop music today. Unfortunately, “Friends That Break Your Heart” does not find Blake working with these strengths. Mileage for this album will depend on how many times the listener can hear the same love song over and over again without getting bored.
-
Vinyl Chapters
James Blake gives us his most raw and introspective work to date with the release his fifth album, Friends that Break your heart.
-
The Daily Californian
By contrast, the rare moments that break through the mellow feeling are when Friends That Break Your Heart is at its most compelling. It’s why the high-pitched wail on “Life Is Not the Same,” the album’s strongest song, is the closest thing to some real tension, cutting through the soft atmosphere like a knife. It stands out on an expectedly well-made album that is, unfortunately, sorely lacking in memorable moments, unlike the deep wounds of heartbreak — platonic, romantic or otherwise — which have the power to linger somewhere in the heart forever.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments