Nick Hakim's 'I Can See' Turns Grief Into Spectral R&B Bliss
Nick Hakim wrote I Can See in the wake of two endings — a long-term relationship and the record deal that had defined his career up to this point — and co-produced the result with Andrew Sarlo across sessions at Sonic Ranch in Texas, various New York studios, and his own home setup. It’s grief music, but Far Out’s review called it “quiet but mighty,” and the label — Earseed, his first release fully outside the major-label system — feels like part of the point.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: The core band — Vishal Nayak and Abe Rounds on drums and percussion, Joe Harrison and Dylan Day on guitars, Kyle Miles on bass — plays with a hushed, celestial restraint throughout, letting Hakim’s sound design function as its own instrument rather than decoration on top of the songs.
The Spatial Dynamics: Organic and electronic textures blur together so thoroughly that it’s often hard to tell which is which — a deliberately spectral quality that makes the record feel, as one reviewer put it, like it was “captured in an old home, from the other side of a room inhabited by some divine presence.”
Standout Performance
“The Reason,” featuring Moses Sumney and June McDoom, is the clearest peak — three voices built for exactly this kind of hushed, supernatural register, singing around loss rather than over it.
Why It’s Certified
Julian Pratt of Show Me The Body co-writes one track alongside Arto Lindsay, a left-field pairing that only underscores how far Hakim was willing to reach outside his usual circle to get this record right. Balancing genuine sorrow with what one review called “soothing grace,” I Can See doesn’t resolve its grief so much as sit inside it patiently, letting the songs do the work of processing rather than performing. Certified great.