Rising star RAYE (born Rachel Keen) has released her much anticipated sophomore studio album “THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE.” It comes three years after her debut “My 21st Century Blues” which was also a long time coming. 

She actually entered the music industry in 2014 after dropping out of the prestigious BRIT School in Croydon, London. It’s the same school artists like Olivia Dean and Adele went to, but for her, she felt “confined”.

She was signed to Polydor Records for seven years in a contract that called for four studio albums to be released. Despite multiple hit EDM singles in the UK, she was never permitted to record an album and was effectively stripped of her creative control. In 2021, she was released from her contract due to her publicly complaining about the label’s treatment and she has since gone on to be exponentially bigger.

Her first album “My 21st Century Blues” was fairly diverse sonically with songs pulling from pop, jazz, R&B, dance/house, and hip-hop. While all of these genres are still very much a part of her, she really took a turn to dive into the jazz and soul sounds she dabbled with on her last album for the new one.

This album rollout kicked off the release of her single “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” in September 2025. The song was an instant hit and she has gone on to perform it practically everywhere. She sings about longing for her future husband to hurry up and find her in a very fast paced talk-singing sort of way, which mirrors her desire for him to show up quickly and sweep her off her feet.

She followed this up with two more singles closer to the album’s release titled “Nightingale Lane.” and “Click Clack Symphony. (feat. Hans Zimmer)”. For those who don’t know, Hans Zimmer is a world renowned German composer and producer who has created over 100 film scores and soundtracks. 

This leads to that track having an incredibly cinematic feel to it. The former song is a dramatic ballad declaring that because she has been loved before, she will be loved again and while she misses her former lover, she knows he taught her life lessons she’ll always value.

The album “THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE.” was released on March 27, 2026 to fairly high critical acclaim with an average score of 90/100 based on 10 reviews as of writing. The album is broken up into the four seasons of the year spanning from autumn to summer as a representation of her emotional journey across the album.

After a brief spoken word intro, RAYE transitions into a track called “I Will Overcome.” In this song, she grapples with both how she sees herself and how the general public perceives her. She has been compared to the legendary Amy Winehouse since she started experimenting with jazz and she directly addresses this on this song. 

She says, “And it’s funny, some people say I remind them of Amy / Some spit through their keyboards, I’ll never amount / And the evil in insults, the arrows from your tongue / Is the same devils you tortured her with”. 

A standout track is track four: “The WhatsApp Shakespear.” which is split into two parts sonically. The first part is a jumpy pop song with piano flare thrown throughout as she paints the picture of a man who’ll say whatever it takes to get who he wants, not caring if it’s disingenuous. Suddenly towards the end, it transitions to a big brass led jazz section where she plays off the situation as a “romantic thriller” starring her and the six other women this man has been wooing simultaneously.

One highlight that is noteworthy is on the song “Winter Woman.” she samples Vivaldi’s violin concerto “Winter”.

At the end of the winter section there is a song titled “Life Boat.” that is a huge departure from the rest of the album’s sound. It starts off with a number of voices ranging in age and tone saying”never give up”. This motif continues throughout the song with slight changes in phrasing but overall frames the song’s message and is the point in the album where things start to shift.

“Life Boat.” builds slowly into a big EDM song, an ode to her past as a featured artist on countless EDM tracks. You can look at it almost from that perspective from when she was being forced to be on all these songs instead of what she wanted to make but telling herself through it all that she’s not giving up yet.

From this point on in the album even when there is hardship she has to sing about, she finds the silver lining. One example of this is the song “I Hate The Way I Look Today.” which is a hot-style song about daily struggle with body dysmorphia but by the end she forces herself to say her daily affirmations and learn to love her body.

Another example of this comes on the song “Goodbye Henry. (feat. Al Green)” which talks about arguably the hardest kind of breakup. The type where you still hold a lot of love for a person but it just doesn’t work and you’re forced to wish them the best. It’s also just a big deal to have someone as respected and influential as soul legend Al Green on a song with you.

In the summer season of the album she has two songs that tie in her family to this project. She has a song called “Feilds. (feat. Grandad Michael)” with the feature coming in the form of a voicemail she received from him. It tells the story of how he was a songwriter but had his songs stolen from him and now she gets to pursue that same career freely. 

She also has a song called “Joy.” which features both of her sisters, Anna and Absolutely. The song paraphrases the bible verse Psalm 30:5 where she changes it to “I may cry through the night but my joy comes in the morning” over soaring horns and galloping drums.

The one real dud is the penultimate song “Happier Times Ahead.” and it’s not because of any blaring flaws. It seems to just be repeating things other songs on the album said – and frankly did better. In a vacuum, not a bad song by any means just unnecessary for this album.

She closes the album with a song titled “Fin.” which spends most of its six and a half minute runtime listing off every single individual person who worked on this album, from producers to each member of the multiple orchestras and symphonies she collaborated with. A verbal credit roll if you will. 

This project was very ambitious and incredibly impressive overall, especially when you consider it’s from an independent artist. She was able to combine retro influences with modern sounds to create a unique 73-minute experience. It bubbles with personality to the point where if anyone were to cover most of these songs it wouldn’t sound quite right.

It’s one of those albums that everyone should give a chance, because if not, you’re missing out on one of this decade’s greatest albums.