“I can feel, I can feel/It all collapse and start to heal” singer-songwriter Nick Hakim coos in an airy falsetto on the opening track of his fourth studio album. In the years since Cometa, his 2022 full-length, the D.C.-raised Hakim weathered euphoric highs and crushing lows: Artistic achievements, including contributions to projects by Miley Cyrus, Adrianne Lenker, and Lil Yachty, were countered by the end of a record deal and the dissolution of a relationship. On I Can See, Hakim takes a clear-eyed look at his place in the world and the path that led him to it, with sadness as his fulcrum for digging deeper in these heavy cuts. Despite the hymnlike “7 Days,” which crosses the six-minute mark, Hakim and his collaborators have crafted a tightly wound record where every brushed drum and shifted bassline carry purpose, as if the arrangements are tracing the meanderings of Hakim’s mind. On “Know My Name,” a ghostly choir swoops in to voice Hakim’s instability after a breakup; the gratitude-drenched “The Reason” dissolves into a coda of feedback, an aural complement to the warm feeling that accompanies someone feeling “so found and so new.” Hakim’s quivering wail gives emotional heft to “Endlessly Waiting,” where he scans the landscape for any indication of hope, and the submerged soul-folk cut “U Can Make It”; on the spaced-out “Barii,” which was co-written by his brother, Danny, he bats back synths to reclaim his and his intended’s humanity in the face of machine takeover. I Can See is a testament to that human touch, with one of modern soul music’s most innovative songwriters testing his artistic mettle while peering deeply within.