Release Date: 27 March 2026
Song Count: 17
Duration: 1 hour, 13 minutes, 12 seconds
Rating: 8.9/10
Description:
Song Count: 17
Duration: 1 hour, 13 minutes, 12 seconds
Rating: 8.9/10
Description:
Get ready for another round of fire from recent releases from this date - I've got plenty in store. Also, this technically qualifies as the first time two friends of mine have recommended the same album, so that is quite neat as well.
Speaking of artists returning to the front page, Raye is back and going bigger than ever! Only her second full-length endeavour excluding the live albums, the British R&B singer has gone all in on this new album to make it her most ambitious and grand one yet, with many people, including entire orchestras and a renown film composer, involved in aiding with setting the scene for her to let both her songwriting and singing steal the show. A longer listen with storytelling and dramatics interwoven into a contemporary feel, this record takes everything Raye is known to incorporate into her highly unique music and elevates it to a level never previously seen, demanding one's full attention from the moment it begins as if it were a blockbuster film.
It's difficult to pick one spot to begin explaining everything that is confined within THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE., as it may just be the most musically maximalist work one could ever witness with its sheer scale. From the electronic production slinging the strings together and adding a dash of catchiness to the jazz-style band with its brass instruments, pianos and percussions bringing in the theatric and almost vintage setting present in many of Raye's recent songs and even whole orchestras decked with passionate strings pulling through at the most key moments to induce a tear or two, there is simply so much going on within this one package that it's difficult to precisely keep up with. The most notable thing about the rich and stacked instrumentation, however, is the fact that all of the moving parts manage to create something harmonious, coherent and unified in its nature, sorting through the volume of everything contained to make sure the positive aspects of the album's maximalism are on full display.
This setup then leads the way for the woman herself to not only kill it with her dazzling vocals, but also bring life to the story being told over the course of the runtime of her experiencing gut-wrenching heartbreak and struggling to pull herself back up again, taking one step at a time to reach happiness and holding onto hope that things will get better along the way. It is a narrative that, though simple in its premise, absolutely soars in execution, really making the listener feel for the desperation, conflicted emotions and strive towards a better state of self that Rye reflects in the album's music, both with her extremely compelling delivery and the striking instruments strongly influencing the different moods. In this manner, the aforementioned comparison to a box office smashing film is even more prevalent with how captivating the entire framing around this almost concept album-like style is in every aspect.
The first listen-through didn't do much for me at first until the second half where the tracks started to become more enjoyable - however, through relistens and further digestion of the absolutely monstrous work that is THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE., it really clicks in one's head how everything builds up and comes together in a way that only a musician like Raye and her many assisting artists, whom she credits at the very end out loud with "Fin.", could pull off. Rarely does one find extended pieces like this that go beyond the conventions of what one expects from the medium of music, but this album most certainly belongs in that category, and for that it deserves an extra amount of respect. This is definitely one I will be thinking about for a while going forward, and if you've got just over 73 minutes of time to dedicate to something like this, do certainly give it a whirl and witness for yourself this absolute sorcery. Bravo, and keep on hoping.