James Blake has shared an acoustic cover of Bill Withers’ ‘Hope She’ll Be Happier’ for Spotify’s Singles series. The new single also features a reimagined version of ‘Say What You Will’, the lead single from the singer-songwriter’s upcoming album Friends That Break Your Heart. Check it out below.
“I chose to do the Bill Withers cover because his live version of that is one of my favorite recordings of all time and it just stayed with me for years and years until finally, I decided to try and take it on,” Blake said in a statement. “Obviously, that is a bit daunting because it’s Bill Withers, but hopefully we did it justice. I like the change of timbre for me, I like singing over a guitar, and I like including some new chords and some elements of sampling to kind of give it a slightly different spin.”
He added: “With ‘Say What You Will’ it was just a matter of trying to incorporate enough elements in the song, so it felt full even though there’s only three of us playing it and there’s like seven parts in the song. I don’t think we really have enough hands, but we gave it our best shot.”
Friends That Break Your Heart is set for release on October 10. In addition to ‘Say What You Will’, it includes the previously released singles ‘Life Is Not the Same’ and ‘Famous Last Words’.
