For music is medicine, she cried from her soul: Global superstar sets industry ablaze with old-school masterclass.
It’s quite impressive that it’s been a good week and we’ve not spoken about this record yet. Whether I was putting it off aghast or I was merely properly ingesting the album, we’ve finally gotten around to it.
A centrally emotional debut My 21st Century Blues was coined as “RAYE of old, but reloaded.” If anything, this was the understatement of the year. The decisive new chapter was more than just a reload. It was reimagining, a revitalisation of a singer-songwriter once muzzled to the whims of the industry she professed to. It awakened a soul superstar, unbound and unfettered, free to do what the hell she likes. Four Brit Awards, certified Platinum and a Royal Albert Hall sell-out later, she returns with her greatest yet.
A spellbinding orchestral pop rollick, THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE is a shining artist making music on their own terms. Although chaotic in parts, the 17-track conceptual record traverses every ratio, aspect and genre we’ve had the privilege of attaining. Rarely sitting still for a fleeting moment, RAYE darts from her retro soul signature, to swing-era jazz, classical pastiches, house music and finally settling on the Golden Age of Hollywood’s films scores – it transcends all expectations of what a pop record should be, and what it can be.
For a record that meets up with many a genre, it can appear a somewhat larger-than-life album that can be almost impossible to contain. Luckily, the leading lady has compartmentalised it for us. Charting a year of ups and downs, the album weans through the four seasons. We begin in a pit of Autumnal melancholy with spoken word narrative Girl Under the Grey Cloud, before sinking deeper into pop frostiness with Winter Woman (which interestingly enough, also samples Vivaldi’s Four Seasons violin excerpt, further bringing this idea to life). Though this season of her life has been cold and tough, the will of optimism powers her on. Featuring Zimmers’ soaring strings, Click Clack Symphony remarks RAYE’s powerful diction, “The cold never lasts, my darling / It just teaches the heart how to burn,” before Zimmers’ strings soar over a gorgeous horizon. It speaks volumes when the likes of Hans Zimmer is involved – a man who carefully handpicks his projects that resonate most with him. Flowers blossom with Springtime romp, Goodbye Henry featuring soul legend Al Green. The Summery sheen is glistening by the time we arrive with euphoric standalone single WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! (which, ironically does not fit among this albums’ theatrics) and funky pop powerhouse Joy, which features her sisters on backing; a family tradition she’s proud to shout from the rooftops.
The albums’ ambition is built on the ambition you need for a better tomorrow. Bold and beautiful, it laments itself with I Know You’re Hurting, a sorrowful jazz-pop number and keeping afloat with dancefloor Life Boat. RAYE’s modus operandi can’t be kept down for too long however. Nightingale Lane slow ’50-style work foretells the greatest heartbreak ever known while Skin & Bones unpacks the audacity of male counterparts – “are the standards this low?” Happier Times Ahead further instils a message of hope amongst an uncertain world before the final chapter comes ahead. Aptly titled Fin, over thirty names were listed by RAYE as she gives thanks to the musicians, engineers, the collaborators and her inner team networkings all behind the project before she gives the biggest thanks of all to her fans. Forever remaining grounded to why she makes music in the first place, it forever solidifies RAYE in having the perfect trifecta of musical stardom: family, ego and musicality.
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