Singer-songwriter RAYE has had a long journey to releasing her second album, This Music May Contain Hope. From a young age, her eyes were set on the famous BRIT School, a few miles away from her home in South London. At 14, she finally joined the school, immediately began creating music, and soon after that, was signed to Polydor Records. A few EPs followed, but she was jerked around by the label for years without letting her release her debut album. At that point, then in her early 20s, RAYE quit the label in 2021 to become an independent artist; her debut album My 21st Century Blues, happily enough, turned out to be a big hit. For the new album, RAYE continues to be an unsigned, independent artist, once again working solely with the distribution company Human Re Sources to get her music out to the world.
Just a cursory glimpse through her independent-era music makes it clear that RAYE was always meant to be an independent artist. This Music May Contain Hope brims ambitiously with ideas, genres, topics galore – often to the point of warranting a savvy editor to trim things back – but you cannot deny her originality.
RAYE’s skill lies in setting catchy music to the angst of being a young woman in an increasingly transactional, digitally-native world. The album kicks off with a spoken word intro, where a woman in her late 20s (presumably herself) is drunk, alone and belittled by men; and just when things are looking irretrievably bleak, receives a rescuing call from her grandmother. Similarly, on “The WhatsApp Shakespeare”, a 90s-era R&B track, she’s in the grips of a modern-day smooth-talking playboy until her family helps her get out. On “Nightingale Lane”, she belts her heart out, like a modern-day Mariah, about the greatest heartbreak of her life (so far). And of course, there’s the break-out “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND”: a maximalist, big-band track where RAYE is unapologetically needy about a man who may not even know she exists.
If you’re noticing a pattern here: RAYE has a lot to say, and does so by whipping between genres and topics like a Spotify playlist set to random shuffle. Although every track on the album is well-produced – owing to her hard-earned skills as a truly independent artist – the album, taken as a whole, comes across as overstuffed. You just don’t know where to look. Should you pay attention to the orchestral “Click Clack Symphony”, arranged by Hans Zimmer? Should you take in the showtunes vibe of “JOY” that features her sisters? Or the gentle guitar strums of “Fields”, a paean for her grandfather Michael?
RAYE deserves all the commendation in the world: for managing to be a successful independent artist at a time when pretty much anyone has access to unlimited music; for unabashedly wearing her heart on her sleeve on every single track; for basically being her true self at all times. She has all the hardest parts of her job down pat, whether it’s writing, singing, producing, or promotion. One just hopes that, before her next album, she partners with a good editor to help the listener understand just what to take out of the boggling kaleidoscope of her mind.
Rating: 6.5/10
Top Five Records 
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