The people who saw Raye live at the beginning of the year reported life-changing experiences: so much love, so much hope – and so much musical quality. The 28-year-old’s second album has tons of expectations on its hands. And it fulfills them all. The Londoner began her career twelve years ago. Similar to Robyn, she emancipated herself from the industry and is now an indie artist – and does what she wants.
The album begins like a fairytale film: 2:27 a.m., it’s raining in Paris, the story is about the girl under the gray cloud, her counterpart is introduced with “The South London Lover Boy”. Raye tells, raps and sings, and plays modern revue music between pop, soul and hip hop. Hans Zimmer wrote a Hollywood arrangement for the “Click Clack Symphony”.
Then the album goes into a second part, now it gets personal, Raye makes announcements. The Eurodance hit “Life Boat” conjures up the power of music, “I Hate The Way I Look Today” is defiant swing jazz. And if it gets too much? She gets help from Al Green. He’s actually just a preacher. He makes an exception for Raye. Which says it all about this upcoming megastar.
