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Friends That Break Your Heart
Studio album by James Blake
Released	8 October 2021 (2021-10-08)
Studio	The Green Building (Los Angeles, California) No Idle Campus (Los Angeles, California)
Length	43:42
Label	Republic Polydor
Producer	Dominic Maker Frank Dukes James Blake Joji Khushi Metro Boomin Rick Nowels Take a Daytrip
James Blake chronology
Covers (2020) Friends That Break Your Heart (2021) Wind Down (2022)
Singles from Friends That Break Your Heart
"Say What You Will" Released: 22 July 2021 "Life Is Not the Same" Released: 20 August 2021 "Famous Last Words" Released: 13 September 2021

Friends That Break Your Heart is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter and producer James Blake. It was released by Republic 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.

Promotion and release

James Blake announced Friends That Break Your Heart on 22 July 2021, and it was scheduled for release on 10 September 2021. "Say What You Will" was released as the album's lead single on the same day. "Life Is Not the Same" was released as the second single on 20 August 2021. On 3 September 2021, Blake announced the album was postponed due to delays in physical production as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and would be released on 8 October 2021. "Famous Last Words" was released as the third single on 13 September 2021. The album was finally released on 8 October 2021.

Critical reception

Friends That Break Your Heart ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.3/10
Metacritic	79/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Clash	8/10
DIY
Exclaim!	7/10
Financial Times
The Independent
NME
The Observer
Pitchfork	6.6/10
Uncut	7/10

Friends That Break Your Heart was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received a weighted average score of 79, based on 15 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.3 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Ella Kemp of NME praised the album, stating, "Familiar emotionally yet revelatory in its execution, the album sees Blake sing about mundane, almost incidental upsets that sting harder than they should. Piercing lyrics are matched by innovative, fearless production". Ben Tipple of DIY said, "His shifts in sound are as delicate as his music, continuing to showcase his ability to blur styles with unparalleled precision". Helen Brown from The Independent enjoyed the album, saying, "Few artists can make such heartbreak sound so pretty, while still reflecting on all its weirdness and complexity". The Observer's Kitty Empire wrote, "Many affecting tracks detail the sharknado of outrage and bewilderment in Blake's trademark delicate soprano, offset occasionally by well-chosen collaborators (SZA, or rappers JID and SwaVay) or startlingly pitch-shifted vocals". Nathan Evans of Clash gave a positive review, stating, "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".

Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Fred Thomas stated, "Even though Friends That Break Your Heart travels a winding path from experimental rap tracks to the tender balladry that makes up the majority of its final quarter, it's still one of the more accessible, and occasionally predictable, collections of material from Blake". Peter Boulos of Exclaim! said, "It does occasionally err too heavily towards swaying ballad tropes, but importantly Blake never hides his feelings through allegory or metaphor, nor does he mangle his vocal delivery with electronic trickery". Pitchfork critic Shaad D'Souza said, "Even if the music remains more ambitious than that aspiration, perhaps the most groundbreaking thing about Friends That Break Your Heart is that James Blake has never sounded so safe". Writing for Uncut, John Lewis stated, "Blake's fragmented post-dubstep has always had an air of bleak melancholy, but nothing he's done has been quite as self-consciously miserable as this".

Year-end lists

Track listing

Notes

• signifies a co-producer
• signifies an additional producer
• "Life Is Not the Same" features background vocals by Joji
• "Coming Back" features additional vocals by Dominic Maker

Sample credits

• "Coming Back" contains samples of "Lake Shore Drive" by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah.
• "Foot Forward" contains samples of "Frozen in the Night", written by Dan Hill and Barry Mann, as performed by Hill.

Personnel

Credits adapted from official liner notes.

Musicians

• Jameela Jamil – additional arrangement (tracks 1, 3), structure (tracks 5, 7)
• Joji – background vocals (track 2)
• Dominic Maker – additional vocals (tracks 3, 6, 7)
• Khushi – additional arrangement (tracks 3, 6), additional vocals (track 6)
• Hal Ritson – additional piano (track 3), guitar (track 3), bass (track 3)
• Richard Adlam – additional programming (track 3)
• Rob Bisel – engineering (SZA; track 3)
• Tom Elmhirst – programming (track 3)
• James Blake – vocals (track 6, 11), keyboard (track 6), programming (track 6), drum programming (track 6), Wurlitzer (track 11), synthesizer (track 11), synth bass (track 11)
• Rick Nowels – Rhodes (track 11), Mellotron (track 11), acoustic guitars (track 11)
• John Christopher Fee – keyboards (track 11)
• Nico Muhly – string arrangement (track 12)
• Nathan Schram – viola (track 12)

Technical

• James Blake – recording, mixing (tracks 1, 2, 4-7, 9, 10, 12)
• Take a Daytrip – mixing (track 2)
• Brad Bustamante – recording (track 3)
• Tom Elmhirst – mixing (tracks 3, 8); programming (track 8)
• Carl Bespolka – recording (track 6, 10)
• Khushi – recording (track 6)
• Tristan Hoogland – recording (track 7)
• Matt Scatchell – engineering for mix (track 8)
• John Christopher Fee – engineering (track 11)
• Dean Reid – mixing (track 11)
• Randy Merrill – mastering

Design

• Miles Johnston – artwork
• Bradley Pinkerton – graphic design
• Matt Burnette-Lemon – package production

Charts

Release history

References

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4. Zemler, Emily (20 August 2021). "Hear James Blake's Atmospheric New Song 'Life Is Not the Same'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
5. Hussey, Allison (3 September 2021). "James Blake Delays Release of Friends That Break Your Heart". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
6. Krol, Charlotte (13 September 2021). "James Blake shares pulsating new song 'Famous Last Words'". NME. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
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10. ^ Thomas, Fred. "Friends That Break Your Heart - James Blake". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 13 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
11. ^ Evans, Nathan (8 October 2021). "James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart". Clash. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
12. ^ Tipple, Ben (6 October 2021). "James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart". DIY. Archived from the original on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
13. ^ Boulos, Peter (7 October 2021). "James Blake Lays Himself Bare on 'Friends That Break Your Heart'". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
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v t e James Blake
Discography Songs written and produced
Studio albums	James Blake (2011) Overgrown (2013) The Colour in Anything (2016) Assume Form (2019) Friends That Break Your Heart (2021) Playing Robots into Heaven (2023) Bad Cameo (2024)
EPs	The Bells Sketch (2010) CMYK (2010) Klavierwerke (2010) Enough Thunder (2011) Love What Happened Here (2011) 200 Press (2014) Before (2020) CMYK 002 (2024)
Singles	"Limit to Your Love" "The Wilhelm Scream" "Lindisfarne / Unluck" "Fall Creek Boys Choir" "A Case of You" "Retrograde" "Modern Soul" "King's Dead" "If the Car Beside You Moves Ahead" "Don't Miss It" "Mile High" "Barefoot in the Park" "You're Too Precious" "Say What You Will"
Other songs	"Stop Trying to Be God" "Can't Believe the Way We Flow" "I'll Come Too" "Hummingbird"
Related articles	Blake Works I Re:SET Concert Series
Category

• 2021 albums
• James Blake (musician) albums
• Polydor Records albums
• Republic Records albums
• Albums produced by James Blake (musician)
• Albums postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Albums produced by Take a Daytrip