Trying Times

Electronic · 2026 · 15 tracks · 54m

Trying Times

Skeletal piano and sub-bass explorations of modern isolation. A stark, independent pivot toward hyper-intimate electronic soul and crystalline vocal processing.

It sounds like James Blake finally locked the studio door and made the record he's been wanting to make for years.

A quiet, crystalline meditation on surviving the modern world with one's soul intact.

Trying Times · vs · James Blake

Self Examination+1.0σ

The writing leans notably further into self examination than the rest of the catalogue.

Tracklist · 15 Tracks · 54m

01

Days Go By

4:03

01

Walk Out Music

3:20

01

Landslide

3:45

02

Death of Love

3:26

02

Doesn’t Just Happen

3:17

02

So Far Away

3:13

03

I Had a Dream She Took My Hand

3:40

03

Obsession

1:40

04

Trying Times

4:34

04

Rest of Your Life

4:42

05

Make Something Up

4:06

05

Through the High Wire

3:42

06

Didn’t Come to Argue

4:42

06

Feel It Again

2:11

07

Just a Little Higher

4:19

Moments Worth Waiting For

The way the title track 'Trying Times' builds from a single piano note into a cathedral-sized wall of pitch-shifted vocal harmonies.

The sudden, bone-dry drum machine entry halfway through 'Didn't Come to Argue' that cuts through the atmospheric haze.

The haunting, nearly a cappella ending of 'Rest of Your Life' where his voice sounds like it's dissolving into digital static.

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