Five stars for Raye’s exhilarating debut My 21st Century Blues — album review

“A little context if you care to listen,” runs the introductory lyric to the first UK number one single of 2023. It is “Escapism” by Raye, a bravura piece of storytelling that the rest of the year’s hits will struggle to match. The London singer’s tale of a heartbroken woman going on a manic spree of benders is recounted with commanding vocals and music bustling with narrative energy. Exuberant and dramatic, the song sounds like something being uncorked, the explosive flipside to the bottles of champagne that contribute to its hedonistic protagonist’s downfall.

The context for “Escapism” and the album that follows on its clattering stiletto heels, My 21st Century Blues, is frustration. Raye, whose stage name is stylised in capital letters and whose real name is Rachel Keen, was signed to the major label Polydor Records in 2014 when she was 17. A series of top 20 singles followed, usually pairing her with dance music producers. She also wrote for other artists, including Beyoncé. But she felt suffocated by the label’s reluctance to allow her to make her own album. Pent-up anger reached boiling point in a tweeted outburst in 2021. “I’m done being a polite pop star,” she announced.

My 21st Century Blues follows her exit from Polydor, in an “amicable and mutual decision” according to the label. Released independently through distribution and artist services company Human Re Sources, the album is full of break-ups, none amicable. “Escapism”’s bereft pleasure-seeker in her little black dress is mirrored by the little black dress-wearing heroine of “Flip a Switch”, delivering a brutal begone to a man over a moody nocturnal beat. “Black Mascara” accelerates into a sleek electronic number during which a refrain of “What you done to me?” shape-shifts into a crushing farewell: “You’re done to me.”

“Ice Cream Man” is a knockout power ballad detailing an episode of sexual assault in a recording studio. “Hard Out Here” makes ingeniously interpolated use of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away” to aim barbs at male execs clamping “pink chubby hands” over her mouth to silence her. Other tracks widen the frame of reference to relationship woes, such as caustic soul-revue belter “Oscar Winning Tears”, and social commentary about body shame and ecocide. Raye varies her vocals with seamless versatility, from elaborate trilling to nasal monotones. The music, drawn from classic soul, modern R&B, dance-pop, blues and hip-hop, hits the timeless sweet spot where retro and contemporary meet. The sense of release is exhilarating.

★★★★★

‘My 21st Century Blues’ is released by Human Re Sources