James Blake has grown. That’s something that Blake would want us to think about both his music and him after listening to Assume Form. The album is his first since 2016’s The Colour in Anything, which saw him at his most anxious, and occasionally unfocused because of it. Anxiety and depression have always been a big part of his music and those themes led to his own suicidal thoughts during some of his touring. Assume Form does not stray from these themes, but this time he captures a healthy and underappreciated part of moving on from depressive episodes.

While past projects have seen Blake near drowning from self-isolation, Assume Form is an example of his grappling with the happiness from a healthy relationship. This may seem like an easy battle, but anyone who has been through a deep depression will tell you about the paranoia and overprotectiveness that they’ve had to overcome. Blake’s music seemed to be an almost self-fulfilling prophecy. His music was sad, about loss and self-loathing. His fans related to that, and the themes in his music seemed to overwhelm his own being. He fell into, what he describes on this album as “the ether.”

Before I go into the album, I want to provide a bit of context on the album’s main theme. Paranoia and overprotectiveness of self. A deep depressive episode is like any other injury to the body, it affects you even after you recover. Anyone who has torn a hamstring or broken an ankle will attest that there is a trust that must be rebuilt before that part of the body is at 100 percent again. In basketball, if the hamstring was torn leaping for a block, repeating that same act is going to be the biggest hurdle on the road to a full recovery.

Blake’s depression is the same way, whatever it was that sent him into that deep depressive episode is going to be the hardest thing to overcome. From lyrics on his past projects and the themes on Assume Form, it seems that it stemmed from some sort of relationship, or at least that the strains of a relationship hit the same “brain muscle” as was previously injured.

In Assume Form, he details the final steps of his recovery process as it pertains to his new relationship. On the title song, the first of the album, he sets the goal for the rest of the project. “I will assume form, I’ll leave the ether” and “I will be touchable by her, I will be reachable.” Blake admitted this plan on his Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe. He still leaves a bit of his paranoia for listeners with lines such as “when you touch me, I wonder what you would want with me.” The sample Blake uses, aptly enough, is from a song called Depression by Rage Almighty.

The lyrics throughout the album wrestle between paranoia, a (purposefully) overwhelming appreciation for his girlfriend, and a reflection on his growth. The paranoia lies at the center of the album, with tracks like Are You in Love? and Where’s the Catch? The former being a question he asks throughout the song. Beginning as a seemingly innocent question, taking stock in the relationship, the tone turns more toward desperation as the song continues. By the end, the question seems to be yelled, interrupting whatever answer was being given (probably not a yes). At that point, the listener can tell that the question isn’t honest, but more of a representation of a need for stability by he who asks. Or, he could be looking for a way out (“Don’t take away this one defense of mine / I reserve the right to disappear.”)

In the following song, Where’s the Catch?, Blake’s paranoia is at its most bare, and featured artist André 3000 brings his own. The beat matches this worry as it signals an approaching doom, the doom happens to be André’s verse. The hook, “where’s the catch?,” is as it sounds, things are going well in Blake’s relationship, what’s the catch? The former Outkast member’s verse is full of fear and “false alarms.”

“Exorcism, pessimism has arisen / There’s no reason really treason to myself so silly / so perfect, so perfect so why do I look for curtains?”

On Barefoot in the Park, a beautiful duet between Blake and guest Rosalía, the duo shares the unrelenting attachment of a new relationship (“Who needs balance? I’ll see you every day”). The hook seems to have a double meaning, as I’ve heard it in two different ways. The main interpretation is “barefoot in the park / you start rubbing off on me” but I have also heard “running off on me” which could lend itself to the suspicion Blake has sprinkled throughout the album. He also speaks of calling off the chase later in the song, another hint toward the double interpretation.

On both sides of the paranoia, is a very real appreciation and love for Blake’s girlfriend and their relationship. Can’t Believe the Way We Flow can’t be called anything other than a love song, same with Into the Red. The latter is using another double meaning with the term “gold rush.” Initially he describes a woman watching and standing by him as he is pillaged for all his success by the “hands in my pocket.” By the end of the song, he admits that this woman was his own gold rush, a rush of something beautiful coming to save him in a time of need.

“And the credit goes to her as the bad days become rare.”

Blake and Scott in the video for “Mile High”

Through this admission of love, he begins to reflect on how he got to develop the trust he now has. Lines like “I fell in love overseas / I fell in love like it’s easy” (with Travis Scott and Metro Boomin) on Mile High and “I didn’t plan to stay long” on Tell Them (with Metro and Moses Sumney) give examples of Blake’s doubts at the beginning of the relationship. Later in the album, he admits his wrongs and self-restrictions, on the very literal Power On (“I thought I might be better dead, but I was wrong”) and the beautiful ode to not giving in Don’t Miss It.

On the penultimate song, he tells the listener (and probably himself) to not give in the ether he earlier described. With yet another double meaning, he plays “don’t miss it” as a command to not miss out on the happiness trying to reach you (in Blake’s case, his relationship) and uses the lyric as enforcement to not look back and glorify the depression once had. There’s nothing to be missed.

Finally, Blake meets his goal on the final song of the album, Lullaby to an Insomniac. While not the most impressive standalone song on the album, it shows Blake has fully assumed his form. He is singing to his girlfriend, being there for her when she can’t sleep, not laying aside her with his mind astray.

“I’ll stay up, I’ll stay up too / I’d rather see everything as a blur tomorrow / If you do.”