Ravyn Lenae - HYPNOS

kinda surprised i have to make a thread for this (i'm a bit late to it) as this is the sort of thing ilm is usually all over. surely one of the r&b albums of the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO7YKwjx1Rk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwScuLDbzJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgGIANO-wBA

I spent Wednesday morning listening. Still sorting.

Good songwriting.
MIA and Skin Tight are quite fantastic. Mercury is another highlight.
A little too soft and cottony and heady for my taste. I am not sure I like her vocal techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-9jJuB81QU

making a thread had been on my to-do list (I was sure one was made when "Sticky" / Crush were released but it appears not!)

I'm confident enough now in saying that this is my favourite album so far this year. In contrast to Nabozo I adore the way she builds harmony and uses her head voice.

"Satellites" is a highlight as well as "Xtasy" which to me sounds uncannily like something I might hear on a figurative new Janet album.

Good listen, yeah.

Thank you all for highlighting your highlights. I wasn't immediately feeling Cameo or Venom when this came out so I dropped it, but I love all the named songs so much and now I think I get what she's going for in general

she's got mew material and i wanna say something about "love me not" but i'm also hoping to get it everywhere so i'll just play it for you-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cswfR85D7jM

calling it now: this is a smash.

Pleasant album, good even. Dreamy alt r&b meets soft rock.
Interesting to see that producer Dahi connects a lot of the people I like in that space (Tinashe, Kali Uchis, SZA, Jazmine Sullivan, Kendrick).

i haven't spent enough time with this but it doesn't seem as strong as the debut to me yet

like, it's just competent and nothing more. nothing that's particularly interesting or exciting

some nice songs but yeah, nothing elevates it into special territory for me.

feels like this album has sanded off her edges. i like some of the genre exercises (her singing on the reggae “candy” is really nice), but that’s all they are, well-executed genre exercises

def felt like this lost some of what made her idiosyncratic, her voice aside