Watch James Blake Cover Nirvana's "Come As You Are"
Another moving piano-driven homage from the GRAMMY winner.
James Blake continues to provide some much needed respite during the isolation of the coronavirus quarantines, singing smooth and emotional covers of iconic songs across genres and eras on a weekly basis. After premiering his take on Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” on James Corden, the GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter dedicated Nirvana‘s “Come As You Are” to one of his fans, taking to YouTube for a piano-driven performance.
Blake’s latest offering follows his new single “You’re Too Previous” from late April, a track that kicked off his upcoming and untitled full-length. While he’s hard at work finalizing that project, James has steadily dropped off surprising covers, debuting his own takes on Beyoncé and Joy Division via livestream, delivering a skeletal and poignant Radiohead “No Surprises” rendition, and delighting fans with unexpected homages of Frank Ocean and Billie Eilish. Perhaps his best was his effortless and moving “Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” by Stevie Wonder (which you can also stream below.)
During his interview with Corden, Blake revealed that he may have plans to release an EP of all his covers in the future, but for now he’s maintaining that quick-hitting livestreams are the best way to go while he takes suggestions from his fanbase on what to perform next. Other artists have taken up a similar model like Tom Misch fusing Luther Vandross and Mac Miller in his ongoing Quarantine Sessions streams.
Watch the full performance above. In more music news, Beyoncé enlisted Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, JAY-Z and more for her Black Is King visual album.