Nick Hakim I Can See
Released Jul 24, 2026 Earseed Records
Established consensus 5 professional reviews Updated Oct 7, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Nick Hakim's I Can See arrives as a late-night, intimate suite where small movements and meticulous production reveal their power over time.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
I Can See
3 critic mentions
“On “I Can See” he promises his love to be sincere and already in her hands” — Shatter The Standards
River Rising
2 critic mentions
“Something is following him everywhere on “River Rising,” quiet, almost invisible” — Shatter The Standards
Know My Name
2 critic mentions
“Know My Name' moves from the shaky emotional instability of a post break up mind to choral beauty” — Clash Music
Full critic consensus
Nick Hakim's I Can See arrives as a late-night, intimate suite where small movements and meticulous production reveal their power over time. Across five professional reviews the record earned a 75.8/100 consensus score, and critics repeatedly point to a handful of songs as the clearest windows into Hakim's craft: “I Can See”, “7 Days”, “Soft Wet Clay”, “River Rising” and “Know My Name” emerge as the album's standout tracks.
Critics agree on the album's textured, psychedelic production - a blend of cosmic dub effects, ambient country touches and stoner R&B aesthetics that foregrounds subdued vocals and instrumental detail. Reviewers for Beats Per Minute and Clash praise the title track “I Can See” and “7 Days” for their luminous calm and slow-burning grace, while Shatter The Standards and Pitchfork highlight narrative intimacy in “Know My Name” and the back-half surprise in “Soft Wet Clay”. Variety and Far Out emphasize the record's focus and careful sequencing, commending songs like “Real Here Now” and “U Can Make It” for dense layering and compositional control.
While most critics celebrate Hakim's restraint and the album's gradual revelations, Pitchfork registers some frustration with moments that prefer atmosphere over release, producing a slightly divided view about emotional payoff. Overall the critical consensus suggests I Can See is a rewarding, carefully wrought collection for listeners who prize textured, late-night soul and patient songwriting. Scroll down for full reviews and track-by-track impressions to decide if I Can See is worth a deep listen.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
I Can See
Know My Name
The Reason
Endlessly Waiting
Real Here Now
U Can Make It
River Rising
Inwego
Soft Wet Clay
Barii
7 Days
Water
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 7 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Nick Hakim arrives with I Can See, an album that feels like a late-night revelation, and the best tracks - especially “I Can See” and “River Rising” - crystallize his slow-burning deep soul. The reviewer's measured admiration is everywhere, noting how Hakim taps into emotion with quiet control, making songs like “7 Days” slip into ambient-country textures while “Water” closes with stunning stillness. This is probably his best so far, a record where detail and restraint turn into potency, and those standout tracks are where the album's craft is most visible. The sequencing and sonic courage make the best songs on I Can See linger long after the final notes fade.
Key Points
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The title track “I Can See” opens the album and establishes its slow-burning, intimate mood, making it the prime standout.
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Hakim's meticulous, restrained production and blend of late-night soul with psychedelia and ambient country are the album's core strengths.
Themes
Critic's Take
Nick Hakim's I Can See feels like a long exhalation, and the best songs - notably “I Can See” and “7 Days” - carry that weary, luminous grace. The title track quivers with beauty, a zen-like calm that contains huge caverns of emotion, while “7 Days” ripples with frosted majesty and ranks with Hakim's finest work. Elsewhere “Know My Name” moves from shaky post-breakup instability to choral heights, and “U Can Make It” haloed in heartbreak, shows his deft blending of folk and vintage soul. The album is expansive but succinct, clear-sighted in its wistful introspection, and openly beautiful throughout.
Key Points
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The title track “I Can See” is the album's emotional centerpiece because of its quivering, zen-like beauty.
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The album's core strengths are lyrical recovery, mature emotional openness, and adventurous sonic textures.
Themes
Sh
Critic's Take
In his characteristic, intimate tone the reviewer frames Nick Hakim’s I Can See as an album built around quiet private scenes, and the best songs - “Know My Name”, “River Rising”, “Soft Wet Clay” - are where that domestic mythmaking hits hardest. The writing lingers on family and vanished moments, and the record’s strength is how those details animate performances rather than showmanship. The reviewer singles out “Know My Name” for its braided storytelling, “River Rising” for its slow, rising menace, and “Soft Wet Clay” for returning the album’s central image with felt tenderness. This is an album of small revelations, where time and repetition become the mechanics that make the best tracks resonate.
Key Points
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The reviewer crowns “Know My Name” best for its braided storytelling and emotional specificity.
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The album’s core strengths are intimate family-focused narratives and recurring images of time, attic, and small domestic magic.
Themes
Fa
Critic's Take
Nick Hakim's I Can See is quietly confident, a record that asks listeners to lean in and be rewarded. Lauren Hunter highlights how songs like “The Reason” and “7 Days” reveal themselves slowly, with layered harmonies and a steady, marching beat respectively, each track becoming its own instrumental showcase. The album's intimacy and meticulousness - from drowsy synths on “Endlessly Waiting” to piano on “Water” - make the best tracks on I Can See feel like revelations rather than hits. This is not background music; it is an album whose best songs demand time and repay attention.
Key Points
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The Reason is the standout because its layered harmonies place it front and centre and the reviewer labels it the standout track.
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The album's core strength is its intimate, meticulously arranged space and instrumental variety that rewards close listening.
Themes
Critic's Take
Nick Hakim’s I Can See is a record of small movements and withheld drama, where the best tracks reveal themselves in moments of near-transgression rather than outright release. The reviewer's ear gravitates to the back-half surprise in “Soft Wet Clay”, that brief acceleration and cut which shows how a song might have broken open, and to the uneasy synth-bass swoop in “The Reason” that unsettles an otherwise languid chorus. These are the best songs on I Can See because they demonstrate the album’s rare flashes of tension amid its devotion to medium tempos and hazy textures. Listen for those moments if you are searching for the best tracks on I Can See.
Key Points
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The best song is "Soft Wet Clay" because its sudden acceleration and abrupt cut hint at what the album rarely permits: genuine musical release.
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The album’s core strengths are textured, minimalist production and subtle moments of tension amid a mostly subdued, repetitive palette.
Themes
Critic's Take
Nick Hakim’s I Can See is his most focused work yet, a smoky, seriously structured collection that still inhabits that hazy stoner R&B world. The review elevates “Real Here Now” as one of the most gorgeous R&B songs of the year, and it pairs naturally with the densely layered “U Can Make It” as standout tracks on the album. Jem Aswad’s tone is admiring and descriptive, noting the album’s unhurried tempos and shimmering keyboards while arguing these songs are tightly composed rather than drifting. For listeners asking what the best songs on I Can See are, the critic clearly points to “Real Here Now” and “U Can Make It” as the emotional and technical high points.
Key Points
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“Real Here Now” is the album’s emotional center and is praised as one of the year’s most gorgeous R&B songs.
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The album’s core strengths are its hazy, psychedelic production and focused, multilayered songcraft that blend electronic and organic elements.
Themes
Critic's Take
Nick Hakim makes an album that feels like prayer and playback, and on I Can See the best songs - notably “I Can See” and “Real Here Now” - unfold like haunted, beautiful confessions. DeVille's prose marvels at how Hakim turns studio craft into a living instrument, letting fragile falsetto and gauzy production carry memory and mournfulness. The review keeps a reverent, slightly poetic tone, insisting these tracks are both intimate and otherworldly, the perfect answers to queries about the best songs on I Can See. It reads like admiration rendered clinically, noting craft and feeling in equal measure while pointing to the opening title track as a particular triumph.
Key Points
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The title track is the album's best song for its fragile falsetto and haunting lyric that encapsulates the record's aesthetic.
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The album's core strengths are meticulous sound design and the blending of intimacy with spectral, nostalgic moods.