Elijah Blake has been buzzing since releasing his debut EP, ‘Bijoux 22,’ and landing his first Grammy for writing Usher’s “Climax.” We called him an ‘Artist to Watch‘ at the beginning of the year, and now the Roc Nation signee is prepping for the release of his anticipated major label debut on Artrium/Island Def Jam.
Blake is looking to take R&B to the next level with his upcoming album, which he has revealed to Billboard is titled, “Songs of Melody.”
“The album is called ‘Songs About Melody’ cause all the songs are about one girl. I couldn’t use her name but melody is my strong point when I write songs so [with] the wordplay, melody can be about a girl or that feeling that you get when you hear a great melody.”
The upcoming LP will include collaborations with J. Cole, Big Sean and Common. Besides the Common-assisted, “X.O.X.,” which appears on ‘Bijoux 22’ and is now his lead single off “Songs About Melody,” the album also features the heartfelt, Happy Perez-produced, “Drop Dead Beautiful.”
“That song sums up the story of the album. Whether it was two years, two months or three years you invested time and time is the most valuable thing on this earth so if you gained a friend who knows all your insecurities, all your downfalls, all your flaws, just cause a relationship didn’t work out doesn’t mean that there is not a friendship that was there, if it was real,” he says of “Drop Dead Beautiful.” “It’s a love that was drop dead beautiful… we kind of buried the relationship aspect but gave birth to [the] friendship aspect.”
“There’s going to be beautiful imperfections. Not everything is going to be so perfect that it sounds formulated. It’s organic and there’s live instrumentation,” he continued to say of the album. “There’s storytelling and it takes you to a place.”
Check out Elijah perform the two songs on Billboard Sessions and talk about the album below:
