The title is, of course, typically British understatement. This Music May Contain Hope has not just irresistible confidence and optimism but also real originality about it. All the way from a spoken film noir-ish intro, right through to the final track, in which everyone, yes everyone involved in the album is thanked, including every single member of the London Symphony Orchestra, with all of its section members individually named from front to back.
Raye’s moment has definitely arrived, and the future looks very bright indeed. “Where is My Husband?”, her co-write with Mike Sabath, first performed at Glastonbury last summer has already gone beyond viral and is starting to feel like a cultural meme; it will most likely go past a billion streams within the next few weeks. “Nightingale Lane”, co-written with Tom Richards and Chris Hill, a pair of Jamie Cullum band alumni, is proof if it were ever needed that Raye has a gloriously strong, characterful and adaptable voice and a vocal presence with pipes to spare. Her magnificent soaring over full band in the last minute or so of the song – she really does let the voice absolutely ring out – makes the point well that Raye is ready for what is starting to feel like the inevitable transition over the next few years from arena tours to stadiums.
There is not just extreme cleverness in the lyric writing, and a stylistic palette which effortlessly references anything from Sixties girl groups to Dizzee Rascal, there is an inspiring boldness, ambition and scale about the whole enterprise. I find the irony of creating an unbelievably cheery song out of (sic) body-shaming “I Hate the Way I Look Today”, with a clear nod on the way to the Kern/Fields/Fred Astaire classic, particularly delicious. And it is typically generous that she even makes a point of giving a nod the splendour of a storming improvised jazz saxophone solo by naming and thanking the great Graeme Blevins.
The album also raises some broader questions. Would, and could this level of boldness and invention still find a home in the major label machine? Doesn’t Raye’s scrupulous and passionate support for independent songwriters being able to be properly rewarded feel like the most counter-cultural statement of defiance that it is possible to make in the face of the advancing tsunami of AI slop. Here are five stars' worth of hope.
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