New Music From England
James Blake Officially Releases His Version Of “GODSPEED” By Sheena Johnson James Blake has just released his version of the Frank Ocean cover, “Godspeed.” In addition to that, the UK singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer also released a video to go along with it. James also produced and arranged the original version of the song that appeared on Frank Ocean’s 2016 album release, Blonde. The song originally started out as a short piece on James’ Instagram Live. It then took off to create a life of its own inspiring nearly 500,000 videos on Tik Tok and 5.2 million views. His stripped down piano version of the song instantly became a hit overnight with its haunting vocals and soulful delivery over the music. James says about his cover version, “This song has always been special to me, but I wasn’t expecting the response it’s gotten. Love to everyone who willed the full recording into existence.” “Godspeed” follows his most recent captivating hit single, “Are You Even Real” which went on to receive over 7.2 million streams on Spotify since it’s release. James Blake, the GRAMMY® Award-winning UK singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer has been a driving force behind quite a few hit albums. Besides producing several of the songs on Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Blake has also produced JayZ’s “4:44,”, Beyoncé’s “Lemonade,” “Stop Trying to Be God” with Stevie Wonder and Kid Cudi on Travis Scott’s “Astroworld,” Jay Rock’s “King’s Dead” with Kendrick Lamar, and Future, Kendrick Lamar’s “Damn,” and many other projects. He has certainly become a sough-after producer. Currently James is hard at work preparing his fifth album release as his popularity continues to grow.
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Rock and Blues International • October 2020
