Rachel Aroesti 

Raye: Euphoric Sad Songs review – heartbreak should be messier

There’s plenty of romantic devastation in pop songs with friendly beats and buoyant melodies on Rachel Keen’s album, but it’s not distinctive enough
  
  

Pleasant, if not particularly compelling ... Raye.
Pleasant, if not particularly compelling ... Raye Photograph: Publicity image

Rachel Keen has spent the past half-decade working overtime behind the pop scenes – lending her songwriting skills to various megastars (Beyoncé, Ellie Goulding, Little Mix), and her cool, assured vocals to a series of house DJs (Jax Jones, Martin Solveig, Jonas Blue). Now, the south Londoner is making a concerted effort to reroute her talents into her own steadily blossoming solo career, with a release that in less complicated times might have been billed as her debut album (the nine-track record is either her first “mini album”, or fifth EP, depending who you ask).

One thing Euphoric Sad Songs really has going for it is clarity: juxtaposing dancefloor-friendly beats and buoyant melodies with tales of romantic devastation, this is a record that does exactly what it says on the tin. Moving from desperate pleas to her ex to take her back (Love Me Again) to desperate pleas to a rival not to take her man (the Jolene-inspired Natalie Don’t), the almost masochistic levels of vulnerability, honesty and intimacy on show here allow Raye to transcend her usual pipes-for-hire role. Yet the sound itself feels far less distinctive and personal – a frequently generic dance-pop that is well-rendered and consistently pleasant, if not particularly compelling. It’s an approach that may well pay off when it comes to chart placings – Secrets, a collaboration with Kosovan DJ Regard, has already reached the Top 10 – but for Raye to really distinguish herself as a thrilling solo proposition, the music of Euphoric Sad Songs could do with taking inspiration from the arrestingly messy intensity of its emotional core.

 

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