After the words ‘Assume Form’ were projected around major cities the other week alongside James Blake’s handsome face, eagle-eyed fans naturally put two and two together and, well, assumed some form of new music was coming imminently.
With a series of Instagram posts over the past 24 hours, the Grammy Award-nominated musician confirmed that his next album, Assume Form, will indeed be released next Friday January 18th via his own 1-800 Dinosaur label. Then there are the features, which come courtesy of André 3000, Travis Scott, ROSALIA, Metro Boomin and Moses Sumney… so it’s going to be totally awesome, basically.
The 30-year-old’s fourth album will, according to a press release sent this afternoon, be “his most direct, eclectic and pure artistic statement to date”, which is to be expected following what seems to have been a period of personal development for James. You might remember that last year, the notoriously publicity-shy artist shared a statement about his experiences with mental health and modern masculinity. “Please don’t allow people to fear their own feelings to ever subliminally shame you out of getting anything off your chest, or identifying with music that helps you,” he said at the time. “There is no great victory in machismo and bravado in the end. The road to mental health and happiness, which I feel so passionately about, is paved with honesty.”
Oh, and if that’s not enough, there’ll be a headline tour, too, traversing the US in February and March before landing back on home soil in April. So, until next Friday, listen to the piano-centric track teaser he shared below on repeat, study the tracklist carefully and adopt a brace position.
Pre-order links, track listing and tour dates all available here .