Each Measure Feature: Blake Stokes

FEATURE

Blakes Stokes’s recent single, “Needing Me Now” is a brooding pop track for the heartbroken. A dark, distorted electric guitar strums out a pop progression as Stoke’s crisply tuned vocals reflect on the mundane ways that relationships fall apart. He sings, “Things change, people grow up and they grow apart. Lose faith and dive right into someone else’s arms.” These are the words of someone who is, of course, heartbroken but is trying to be reasonable about it all.

What we don’t know yet is how deep the pain really runs. Stokes wrote this track about someone he admits to still wanting today. He says of the experience, “I felt like the one who I loved the most didn’t want or need me anymore.” The effect of this romantic turmoil on his self esteem bursts through to the surface in the chorus. Full of resentment, he interrogates, “Is he everything you wanted, can he love you the same? Does he promise you forever while he’s taking my place?” Stokes is spiraling. His emotions have caught up with him and he trails off into a wordless hook at the end of the chorus.

This is the first release for Stokes this year but his fifth single overall. His sound straddles the space between Charlie Puth’s radio hits and Post Malone’s more pop-infused tracks. “Needing Me Now” is no exception. The instrumental is simple (just those guitar chords, some drums in the second half, and a brief electric guitar lick during the final chorus) but Stokes wears his heart on his sleeve with passionate vocal delivery and vulnerable lyrics. “Needing Me Now” is short and sweet as if Stokes has stuffed everything he feels into this track, now ready to get the whole painful process over with—as if he is so ready to move on.

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