James Blake - Playing Robots Into Heaven

Deluxe Edition Long before James Blake moved to Los Angeles and became a go-to collaborator with several of the world's biggest R&B and hip-hop stars, including Beyoncé, SZA, and Travis Scott, he helped redefine dubstep and U.K. bass music with his early singles on labels like Hessle Audio and Hemlock. In 2023, the same year he helped soundtrack a key scene of the animated blockbuster Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Blake made a partial return to his club roots with Playing Robots into Heaven, his sixth studio album. The release is his first full-length without any major guest appearances since 2011's James Blake, and on a few tracks, he employs the types of cut-up sample tricks he became known for on releases like 2010's CMYK. Most of the songs feature his own aching falsetto vocals, and the lyrics are often strikingly vulnerable and compassionate. Opener "Asking to Break" is a serenade of gentle pianos, drifting dubstep beats, and pitch-shifted vocal loops, as Blake's feathe