Raye\u2019s<\/a> This Tour May Contain New Music show when you wonder how she is pulling this off.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not just the genre-hopping from jazzy R&B to full-blown torch songs to dance-pop. It\u2019s not just the fact she sells out arenas with what is, for much of the running time, a big-band set so mid-century she can slide in a cover of Fly Me to the Moon without it jarring. It\u2019s not just that she speaks with such raw purpose and rallying spirit about her experience of sexual assault \u2013 while introducing survivorship ballad Ice Cream Man \u2013 and you know she does this every night.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also her capacity to \u201cgo deep\u201d, as she puts it, then bounce into euphoric recovery mode, with the \u201cY\u201d of the bulb lights that spell out her name disappearing to make way for a \u201cV\u201d. It\u2019s also the manner with which she shrinks the 3Arena to the status of an intimate club \u2013 one in which it is entirely natural to indulge in short skits and showbiz patter, expand upon her conviction that \u201cmusic is medicine\u201d and finish with the catharsis of a we-have-one-life philosophy. \u201cI declare there will be joy,\u201d Raye chants as her sisters and support acts, Absolutely and Amma, join her on stage for new song Joy.<\/p>\n
Ice Cream Man remains the emotional centrepiece, though the other expected highlights all deliver. Oscar Winning Tears, also from her first album, My 21st Century Blues, demonstrates her prowess for segueing from speak-singing to full belt. New single Nightingale Lane, about the oddness of her ex-boyfriend becoming a stranger, lends itself to a relatable pre-song explanation. The amusingly brio-filled Where is My Husband! \u2013 which recently became her second UK number one \u2013 is dispatched early with customary panache, while the career-best melodic pathos of her first number one, Escapism, is saved for the encore.<\/p>\n
What is more surprising is the success with which she slots the forewarned \u201cnew music\u201d into the slipstream of her best-known songs without any noticeable dip in audience goodwill. Her second album, This Music May Contain Hope, is not released until March 27th and it is unusual, as she acknowledges, to tour first, but since being released from her contract with Polydor and becoming an independent artist \u2013 a status now firmly part of her identity \u2013 she is not bound by any template.<\/p>\n
Happily, the new songs shape up well, from the near sad-banger vibe of Lifeboat to the moodiness of Click Clack Symphony, which showcases her penchant for squeezing in lots of words. You want her to indulge in as many playful musical detours as possible to keep things interesting.<\/p>\n
The tour poster also promised \u201cdramatic endings, a brass section, love and passion, at least one jazz cover, potential waffling (excessive unnecessary chatting), a big belted note, a nightclub segment, live strings and a musical hug should you need one\u201d. That about sums it up, though vintage glamour and comedy asides are also part of the package.<\/p>\n
[\u00a0Raye at Electric Picnic 2024: Colossal talent and relatability are a winning combinationOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\nRaye, aka Rachel Keen, is in her \u201cdramatic era\u201d, she says. But she can only do what she does because her voice has power, range and \u2013 above all else \u2013 control. What is truly impressive is the skill with which she has imbued this show with those same attributes. There is no messiness in this drama, just star quality and a rare vivacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raye3Arena, Dublin\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 There are times during Raye\u2019s This Tour May Contain New Music show when you wonder how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3265,93,61,60,8546],"class_list":["post-330591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-3arena","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-raye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}