James Blake Says That Girlfriend Jameela Jamil Is “The Reason” His New Album Exists

James Blake’s new album Assume Form has caused some critics to alter their perception of him as a “sad boy,” and the musician recently tweeted that his girlfriend Jameela Jamil was a huge impetus for the album. Assume Form features a brighter sonic palette and more optimistic lyrics from Blake and his collaborators.

Blake and Jamil have been together since 2015, when he was working on his third album The Colour In Anything, at the time though he did not open up about her having influenced his music the way he did with Assume Form.

Jamil jokingly tweeted “To everybody who has enjoyed this album. You are welcome” in response to Blake’s message about her.

Blake also thanked many of the guests on Assume Form. He praised Metro Boomin for “giving me a springboard to do something different,” ROSALÍA for “being a breath of fresh air,” and Travis Scott for “inspiring me over and over this year,” among others.

On “Into the Red,” Blake presumably sings about Jamil and the life that they’ve built together:

The list of things I could live without
Grows longer as I move everything around
Behind all the furniture
Pointed toward her
To keep her in my sights
To keep her in my life

On “I’ll Come Too,” Blake talks about learning to care less what other people think, alluding to picking that up from Jamil, who is an outspoken activist about issues like unhealthy beauty standards and body shaming. Blake sings:

Oh, you’re going to the brink?
I’m going there
Why don’t I come with you?
You don’t care what they think
I’m getting there, I can get there too

In an interview with DAZED, Blake talked about the stigma around expressing emotion as a man, expressing frustration with those who said he shouldn’t share his feelings in his music.

“On this record, I’m just talking about how I feel now, and I will continue to write about how I feel, or sometimes I won’t talk about how I feel, but I’ll fucking damn well choose when I do and when I don’t – without feeling like because I’m a man I shouldn’t do that,” he said.

Read the full lyrics to “Into the Red” and the rest of James Blakes’s discography on Genius now.