English downtempo electronic musician James Blake has recently released a new lyric video for a track titled “Don’t Miss It.” This quiet release follows the previous song “If the Car Beside You Moves Ahead,” which Blake dropped earlier this January.
In “Don’t Miss It,” Blake’s rich vocals, unfailingly gorgeous, floats over the lush, piano-driven core of the song, a collaborative effort with English electronic duo Mount Kimbie’s Dominic Maker. Blake has worked with the group in the past as well, being featured on Mount Kimbie’s 2017 record Love What Survives.
The song’s emotional strength revolves around a feeling of isolation, both by and of society. Being left out of the loop, and attempting to cope by intentionally further leaving yourself out of the loop and claiming that you’re not interested in the first place is a place that many of us have found ourselves in, and this new track perfectly encapsulates this particular brand of loneliness.
The track features the lyrics, “The world has shut me out, if I give everything I’ll lose everything.” He sings “I could avoid going outside, I could avoid wasting my life.”
When many who first listened to the cut started describing it as sad boy music, Blake went on Twitter to express his distaste for the term “sad boy” and to stop stigmatizing men who “express themselves emotionally.”
“We are already in an epidemic of male depression and suicide,” Blake argued. “We don’t need any further proof that we have hurt men with our questioning of their need to be vulnerable and open. It is only a good thing to talk about what is on your mind.”
Check out the lyric video and the tweet below.
Please read. I’ve wanted to say this for a long time, and now seemed as good a time as any. pic.twitter.com/1fSPt7SJnx
— James Blake (@jamesblake) May 26, 2018
Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz