James Blake @ Splendour 2016 / Photo by Maria Boyadgis

Watch James Blake Cover Joy Division, Debut New Song Over Livestream

Back in March, James Blake took to Instagram to perform a set over livestream from his home in Los Angeles, covering the likes of Frank Ocean, Radiohead, Billie Eilish and Joni Mitchell.

Earlier this week, the English songwriter and producer took to Instagram once again to perform for fans, with a number of surprises nestled among the setlist.

During the nine-song set, Blake played a new track entitled ‘Say What You Will’ (45:27) along with his Beyoncé Lemonade collab ‘Forward’ (28:18).

Blake also performed a handful of covers, playing Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’ (16:40), ‘Georgia on My Mind’ (5:15) by Ray Charles and ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’ (59:30), as made famous by Roberta Flack.

The set also included ‘I’ll Come Too’ and ‘Are You in Love?’, both from last year’s Assume Form. As with the last stream, Blake also performed Overgrown cuts ‘Life Round Here’ and ‘Retrograde’.

Blake is one of many artists who’ve taken to performing online while much of the world is at home self-isolating due to the coronavirus pandemic. Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard has been doing a series of livestreamed performances over at his YouTube channel, Dave Bayley from Glass Animals has covered the likes of Nirvana and Lana Del Rey. More locally, stacks of Australian artists have been coming together to perform over Instagram Live as part of a digital festival called Isol-Aid.

Watch a recording of the livestream below.

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