Laughing and Crying with James Blake on “Say What You Will”
A deep dive into Blake’s latest single and its accompanying music video
In the final scene of the music video for James Blake’s latest single, “Say What You Will,” the camera slowly moves away from a sign in front of a concert hall that screams to the world: TOMORROW / FINNEAS / SOLD OUT in humungous letters above significantly smaller letters that feebly read: TONIGHT/ JAMES BLAKE / LOADS OF TIX LEFT. The scene is a perfect representation of the essence of both the song and its accompanying video in that it’s equal parts hilarious and devastatingly sad. Sure, you might initially laugh at the way Blake takes the defeatist mood of the song to absurd lengths, but sooner or later you’ll wince at how accurately it resonates with your own life anyway.
Throughout the video Blake finds himself struggling through the particulars of his day-to-day life to find a little fulfilment, only to be undermined by the famed producer, and brother of Billie Eilish, Finneas who haunts Blake like a terrifyingly cool ghost: when…
