Trying Times

Released March 13, 2026, on James Blake's own Good Boy Records label, 'Trying Times' is his seventh studio album and his first self-released record, marking a decisive break from the major label system he had been part of since his debut.^[2] Blake announced the album through a password-protected website, bypassing conventional promotional machinery in favor of direct fan engagement. He stated that the record "wouldn't exist without direct fan support."^[1]

Good Boy Records adopted a transparent revenue-sharing arrangement with collaborators and team members, a practice that attracted attention from music industry observers as an unusually artist-centered approach.^[7] Jameela Jamil, Blake's partner of over eleven years and the record's executive producer, played a central role in shaping the album's final form. Blake credited her musical intuition and pattern recognition as essential to what the record became.^[5]

The album was written during a period in which Blake had returned to London after approximately a decade in Los Angeles, and was informed by his sense that collective empathy was eroding in the digital age. He described the internet as "a scary place" driven by algorithmic outrage, and the album cover, depicting him spinning many plates, as "a good encapsulation" of his recent years.^[1]

Themes and Sound

Blake described the album's central proposition as "love in a time of chaos": romantic attachment as a survival mechanism against the relentlessness of modern life.^[3] The 13-track, 48-minute album moves between the sparse emotional directness of his early work and the production sophistication he developed during his Los Angeles years. It features contributions including vocals from Monica Martin and rapper Dave.

The album is notable for its candid engagement with mental health, most explicitly in the track 'Make Something Up,' which Blake described as his most direct engagement with depression and suicidal ideation in song form.^[3] Blake called "Trying Times" his "favorite record" of his career.^[1]

The album's lead single, "Doesn't Just Happen," features a collaboration with UK rapper Dave, whom Blake described as a "generational" artist. The track pairs Blake's meditations on love as ongoing practice with Dave's exploration of moral redemption and spiritual aspiration, widening the album's emotional and social scope beyond purely romantic territory.

Critical Reception

Critical reception was largely positive. DIY Magazine awarded the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "a compendium of his best parts" and his most cohesive self-portrait.^[2] Slant Magazine described it as "a natural, unforced expression of hope."^[4] Shatter the Standards awarded it four out of five stars, praising its "specificity and refusal to soften difficult subjects."^[3] Multiple critics described it as a full-circle moment for Blake, returning to the intimate emotional directness of his debut while incorporating everything he had learned in the intervening years.

The album debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart, Blake's highest-ever chart position, and topped both the Official UK Record Store Chart and the Official Vinyl Albums Chart.^[6] Its commercial success as an independent release was widely noted as a validation of Blake's decision to leave the major label system.