Ravyn Lenae must be R&B’s best kept secret. While her contemporaries SZA, H.E.R. and Summer Walker are bona fide pop stars, for years Lenae has remained a cult favourite. But the Chicagoan’s efforts to push the boundaries of pop R&B should become more widely recognised with her second album ‘Bird’s Eye’.
Like Aaliyah or even Billie Eilish, Lenae sings softly – her music fluttery and furtive. She generated buzz as a teen, joining Smino’s Midwestern collective Zero Fatigue and working with producer Monte Booker. Starting in 2015, Lenae released a trilogy of EPs culminating in the Steve Lacy-produced ‘Crush’. After a lull, she reemerged in 2022 with ‘Hypnos’, a debut album that was auspicious if occasionally diffident.
‘Bird’s Eye’, though, feels intentional – like its creator has come into their own. Now 25, Lenae has settled in Los Angeles and for this record tapped in new collaborator: Californian hip-hop stalwart DJ Dahi, renowned for his productions with Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott and Drake. As executive producer, Dahi brings shiny synths, snappy drums and flair to Lenae’s dreamy aesthetics.
Lenae opens ‘Bird’s Eye’ with the whimsical ‘Genius’, a bouncy throwback to 2017’s funky single ‘Sticky’, about simply getting by in life. But, nothing is predictable here. Lenae presents what is her equivalent of Solange’s ‘Sol-Angel And The Hadley St. Dreams’ – the transformative opus that arguably ushered in the progressive R&B era. Indeed, Lenae spreads her wings.
The theme of ‘Bird’s Eye’ is emotional perspective, Lenae’s imaginative songs akin to fragmentary conversations or memories. Most moving is the recent single ‘One Wish’, in which she addresses an absent father (played by a supposedly-retired Childish Gambino) crooning, “Called me on my birthday/I thought you’d be on your way/Candles burned down to the cake/Still not seeing your face” with wistful Motown harmonies.
The singer-songwriter experiments with sonic textures, incorporating instrumentation from diverse genres into her avant R&B, rather than merely reproducing them, playlist-style. ‘Candy’ reveals a lilting reggae rhythm, with bursts of rock guitar elsewhere. Lenae goes indie on the Anderson .Paak co-write ‘Love Me Not’, abandoning those old hushed vocal tones as she ponders romantic commitment. It could be Amy Winehouse fronting The B-52s.
Classically trained, Lenae also shows off some Minnie Riperton operatics on ‘From Scratch’. With Janet Jackson’s fabled producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on board, ‘Dream Girl’ is her foray into Kali Uchis-esque bossa nova – though Ty Dolla $ign, the album’s only other featured guest, seems superfluous here.
Intriguingly adventurous, ‘Bird’s Eye’ marks Lenae expanding her musical repertoire and exploring new vistas – an ambitious accomplishment.
Details:
- Release date: August 9
- Record label: Atlantic Records