Jake Isaac takes us track-by-track through his soulful – and soul-baring – fourth studio album ‘BENJAMIN,’ an achingly intimate, breathtakingly bold record that finds him unpacking life itself through a smoldering, cinematic, and singularly stunning soundtrack.

Stream: “EVER YOURS” – Jake Isaac

I’ve waited a long time to make this album: An album that truly reflects my musical upbringing and other dynamics in my life that go beyond just the topic of romance.

Soul has forever been synonymous with the Jake Isaac experience.

Ever since the South London-bred singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist first introduced himself over ten years ago, his art – and indeed, everything he touched – has been drenched in that special sound that crosses and connects generations; that speaks to love and heartache like nothing else in this world ever can. Through records brimming with passion and pain, and performances steeped in raw emotion, Isaac has made a name for himself as one of the UK’s foremost contemporary soul artists. It’s a recognition he’s worked hard for, and an identity he wears with pride.

And yet, it’s safe to say that Isaac’s fourth studio album is his most soulful – and soul-baring – of his entire career: Achingly intimate and breathtakingly bold, BENJAMIN is a seductive and spellbinding journey into Jake Isaac’s depths that finds him unpacking life itself – its highs and lows, joys and pains, ebbs and flows – through a smoldering, cinematic, and singular soundtrack.

Eleven dreamy, dramatic, and emotionally potent songs explore everything from family and faith to heritage, hope, love, and more as Isaac bares his full self on an album that shines a warm light out down on him, and out on all who listen.

I don’t know if I could could do
a single day without you
Now I realise this is my truth
but you already knew about me

You’re the jewel to my crown,
you’re the up when I’m down
When I’m falling.
You’re the glove to my hand,
help me up, help me stand
I’m all in.
I’ll be yours only, I’m all in

I could never be without you
I’d be a liar with no truth
I’m caught up In your ocean
And I don’t need saving; I’m all good
Your love’s good light in the morning
Now I’ll be forever yours
Ever yours

– “Ever Yours,” Jake Isaac

Released October 25, 2024 via Nettwerk Music Group, BENJAMIN is a comforting, cathartic, and invigorating collection of musical reveries and reckonings. Arriving just a year and a half after his third studio album For When It Hurts, Jake Isaac’s fourth LP is his most vulnerable, honest, and intentional work yet – its songs a revealing “peak behind the curtain” to look not just at the artist, but the man born Jake Benjamin Isaac.

“This album was completely about what the title of this album means to me – Benjamin,” Isaac tells Atwood Magazine.

“It’s actually my middle name, and historically I’ve never really been too proud of it, and have definitely not shared it with those around me. So by naming this album by my middle name, my intention was to push for revealing more of who I am, both in story and sonically in terms of musical expression.”

Isaac accomplished this mission by expanding his songwriting’s scope, writing about new terrain (such as religion and family members) while forever staying true to himself.

“I wanted to reflect some of the soul music that I grew up being influenced and have since listened to,” he explains. “My vision going into this project has completely been an expression of authenticity, and that never really changed during the course of creating this; in fact, it has very much anchored me.”

Isaac describes his album as soul, stories, and sentiments.

“I think this record reintroduces me as even more Jake Isaac,” he chuckles. “I’ve been pretty fortunate to have my fan base really journey with me to this point.”

Authenticity and tenderness take center stage on BENJAMIN as, from the record’s soothing start all the way to its introspective and emotional finish, Isaac delivers a musical journey only he could ever tell. Highlights include the smoky “FOOLS FOR LOVE,” the irresistibly groovy “BLACK OR WHITE,” the unflinchingly earnest “ALL I NEED,” the fiery “GOOD MAN,” and the love-soaked “EVER YOURS.” The soft acoustic serenade “WHY” closes the album in a moment of sweet, dreamy soul-searching wonder as Isaac asks aloud so many of the questions that keep him (and many of us, too) up at night:

Why, live just to die
Cant we live twice
Why not another chance

Why do these days turns to night
And darkness to light
To start all again tommorow

Maybe we’ll never know
Maybe this is how its supposed to go
Maybe we’re all alone
And we’re tryna find our way back home
So we’re asking why

Isaac cites “Good Man” as his personal favorite track. “This song is definitely special to me, simply because I wrote it in honour of my father, a genuinely great man,” he says “I’d never really written or released a song about him before, so this was a special moment for me and for him!”

Meanwhile, his favorite lyric comes from the song “23,” a musical interpretation of what Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”) means to him in the present day: “These thoughts these shadows trouble my soul, heart caught in a war on a valley floor.”

Given the tender loving care he put in, Isaac hopes BENJAMIN can now become a comforting companion for others as they go about their lives. 

“I’d really like listeners to take away a journey and real creative progression from this album,” he shares. “I’d really love for this album to be something that people are able to immerse themselves in on a long journey or a late winter’s evening, or on a long drive, etc.”

“For me, this album has really been something that has reminded me to pursue being myself and that there are people out in the world that will still receive my art as long as I’m being true to myself.”

Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Jake Isaac’s BENJAMIN with Atwood Magazine as he takes us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of his stunning fourth album!

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:: stream/purchase BENJAMIN here ::

:: connect with Jake Isaac here ::

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Stream: ‘BENJAMIN’ – Jake Isaac

:: Inside BENJAMIN ::

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SELAH

I really wanted to open up this album with a moment to pause and set the scene, this track is that moment for me. It’s almost the ‘hi how ya doing’ of the album and gives the listener a chance to get a feel for what lies ahead for the rest of the record.

FOOLS FOR LOVE

Sometimes love has a way of being the thing that brings life, while also being the thing that can feel like dying to one’s self all at the same time. This song for me explores that journey.

BLACK OR WHITE

It’s a song that basically communicates the need to communicate in order to stand a chance of loving how one needs to be loved. I suppose it centres around the age old saying of: ‘It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.’

OKAY

From my journey and from doing life with others, I’ve come to the realisation that every human at some point in their journey needs a moment to be encouraged by someone else and at time themselves; this song is that moment. It’s a little reminder of that famous quote, ‘where there is life, there is still hope’.

ALL I NEED

If I was to ever do my version of Ushers ‘confessions’, this song would be that lol. It’s a song of giving up and confessing that one is incomplete with the love of another.

MISS WILHEMINA

This track/interlude is named after my grandmother and its actually her voice on the record, taken from a conversation we had about heritage, the wind rush generation and the power of music to inspire perseverance and inspiration inspire of social struggle.

GOOD MAN

This song was definitely the best song to follow a conversation with my grandmother about the wind rush generation. This song is about my father, an Antiguan Native that has built his life her in the UK to become and incredible upstanding man and inspiration to many including me.

23

There have been rap songs by gangster rappers as well as hippie songwriters, that have put their spin on one of the bible’s most famous verses ‘Even though I walk through The Valley of the shadow of death…” I figured with all that’s going on in the world right now, I’d give it a try myself. This song is my offering to anyone that’s feeling the weight of it all.”

EVER YOURS

One of my favourite bands from the Motown era are The Temptations, I really wanted to write a good old love song that would be my current day spin on a song they might sing. It’s about the simple yet profound desire to commit to another human.

SUNDAY MORNING

This interlude is basically a moment to give the listener a taste of the types of feel and soundscape that I was exposed to growing up, I suppose in a way contributing to the overall purpose of the album to reveal more of myself.

WHY

This song is almost the final thought of this record for me, asking questions that remind me of what’s important in this short time we have on this planet earth. I thought it would be good to land the album with this almost in a way the for the listener to continue the story/narrative of self discovery if the wished to.

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:: stream/purchase BENJAMIN here ::

:: connect with Jake Isaac here ::

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BENJAMIN

an album by Jake Isaac