Raye<\/a> tells us. She dives into the darkness with \u201cWinter Woman\u201d (containing echoes of her 2023 hit \u201cEscapism\u201d), thawing out with the spring soul of \u201cGoodbye Henry\u201d (featuring R&B legend Al Green) and building to the giddy summer brass of single \u201cWhere Is My Husband!\u201d The way the 28-year-old throws her vocal virtuosity and infectious delight into every moment of her storytelling is breathtaking. <\/p>\nFor all her musical brilliance, Raye\u2019s problems are relatable. She\u2019ll be overheard in one out-take offering to make tea for the band and despairing over her single status in another (it\u2019s been five-and-a-half years now, she says). She has a matey warmth that translates well on this album, as she sings about needing her girlfriends to drag her out on a Friday night (on the snappy feminist anthem \u201cClick Clack Symphony\u201d, aided by Hollywood maestro Hans Zimmer), and fesses up to her insecurities on the jazz-scatty \u201cI Hate The Way I Look Today\u201d. There\u2019s communality in the many layers and styles of backing choirs, from a casual vox-popping of friends and family insisting, \u201cI\u2019m not giving up yet\u201d, on \u201cLife Boat\u201d, to a cameo from her grandfather Michael, who tells her, \u201cYou can feel lonely in a crowded room\u201d on the bluesy \u201cFields\u201d. <\/p>\n
Anyone daft enough to still be dissing Britain\u2019s most exhilarating pop star as \u201cthe Shein Amy Winehouse\u201d (an insult she laughed off in a recent Vogue<\/em> interview) will have to can it now. Yes, like the late Camdenite, she\u2019s putting a messy, modern spin on old-school sounds. But pop has always eaten itself (I remember my grandad describing his amazement on hearing Rodgers and Hart\u2019s 1930s ballad, \u201cBlue Moon\u201d, reinvented as a peppy doo-wop hit in 1961). Raye devours it all and spits it back out as stardust. <\/p>\n