Tell Them
by James Blake (featuring Metro Boomin)

Album: Assume Form (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Tell Them" finds a guarded James Blake recounting a one-night stand.

    I didn't plan to stay long
    In the snake pit so long, I've got posters up
    Been defending so long, I don't know how to stop


    Blake explained to DazedDigital that the song is "from the perspective of someone who is traveling a lot, or not being to close to anyone." He added that the singer is wary and protective of himself but still desires intimacy.
  • Blake explained in an iTunes track by track that the song is "a monologue on a one-night stand: There's fear, there's not wanting to be too close to anybody. Just sort of a self-analysis, really."
  • Blake recorded the song with the electro-soul LA singer-songwriter Moses Sumney, who croons the first verse and the refrain. Moses Sumney was the support act for James Blake for select dates on the US leg of his 2016 The Colour in Anything tour.
  • Metro Boomin supplies the lurching, shiny beat. The American trap producer also supplied the soundscape for Blake's "Mile High" track.

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