Loyle Carner
hopefully !
Virgin EMI
Listen Below
Loyle Carner’s fourth album hopefully! was released this past week as the United Kingdom sweltered in a heat that set activity levels to minimal (at least in this house). It also feels like it was written and recorded during a heatwave, such are the sluggish waves of lethargy that permeate 90% of the material here.
Carner’s already lugubrious delivery has, at times in the past, found a striking partner in strident and forceful beats. But here he is mainly backed by a band that are steeped in airy guitar lines, dreamy synths and a generally woozy atmosphere—the louche king of woozy soul, Nick Hakim, even pops up on “Don’t Fix It.”
There is a solid core of co-contributors in Avi Barath, Nick Mills and the ever-delightful Rosie Lowe, who sprinkles her trademark vocals on several tracks. There is also a poignant posthumous appearance from Benjamin Zephaniah, that serves to remind how much his voice and spirit is missed in these trying times. It also marks the debut of Carner as a singer, tricked into laying down “guide vocals” by his producer, then being confronted with them on the finished tracks. His singing voice is characterful and connects in a way many cut-glass, cookie-cutter, emotionally empty vocalists never do.
As ever, Carner is an open book lyrically. Thankfully, he knows no other way to operate and we get to hear the fruits of his fragile ego and uncertainty of his place in the world. He bemoans the loss of friendship on “in my mind” and his inability to think before speaking, he reflects on life as a dad and the tentative nature of hope on the title track, and more ruminations on whether he’s up to the job of parenting on the exceptional “lyin.”
Listen to the Album:
On either side of Hakim’s appearance at the end of the album are a couple of (compared to what has come before) more urgent sounding pieces. “Purpose” delivers a snippet of what sounds like a gospel sample, but isn’t, and album closer “About Time” offers something to smile about both in his bright, uptempo delivery and the presence of his young child at the end.
Part of the joy of this album, as someone who has listened to Carner for a while, is the way in which he is tiptoeing further away from his foundations. The sounds are slightly different here than on previous albums and his tentative sojourn into singing is a success because his voice connects as easily as his rapping does.
Notable Tracks: “lyin” | “strangers” | “purpose” | “time to go”
LISTEN: