James Blake Officially Releases Cover of Frank Ocean’s ‘Godspeed’
One of the most significant artists to emerge in the past few years, UK-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer James Blake just released his somber cover of Frank Ocean’s “Godspeed” with an accompanying music video. With its message of making it through the “darkness of the night,” the piano-based ballad speaks to our troubled times.
Blake, who produced, arranged and played on the original version that appears on Frank Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde, initially performed the cover as a snippet on his Instagram Live. The clip of Blake’s reimagined version organically caught fire on TikTok. Almost immediately, it inspired nearly 500,000 videos and accumulated a total of over 5.2 million views on the platform.
“This song has always been special to me, but I wasn’t expecting the response it’s gotten,” says Blake. “Love to everyone who willed the full recording into existence.”
“Godspeed” arrives on the heels of Blake’s latest single, “Are You Even Real?,” which has already generated 7.2 million Spotify streams since release.
