Home is where hope is in Loyle Carner's new album, 'hopefully !'
- blondevibrations
- Jun 29
- 6 min read
With his fourth studio album, 'hopefully !', Loyle Carner deepens his reputation for introspective, emotionally rich storytelling. In this record, he confronts themes of generation, parenthood, and identity, with renewed clarity and the evolution of both his musical craft and growing family.
The album opens with 'feels like home', which could be the perfect opening track for this project. It feels like the sun peaking through a curtain in the morning as you wake up, setting the domestic yet wholesome tone for the project. Speaking to Apple Music, Carner shared that the background noise heard in this track is a 'little track I had on my phone of my son playing wind chimes in the park', and thus it's clear that this project is about to be all about family -- even true with lines like 'Things that came before and things that haven't happened since'. The chorus repeats 'You feel like home' introducing this common feeling of a person (or people) being your home, rather than a built structure. In a couple of tracks time, 'all i need' also re-evaluates this idea of what a home is, as Carner develops previous thinking that we've seen in his previous album 'hugo' (2022) on ownership and belonging. The inclusion of 'Got me turning off my screen / Wonder what I mean / Please don't, delete your history' expands this even further with a consideration of the digital world, and what this may mean for our memories, identity, and relationships. As technology develops, people seem to be placing as much importance on their devices as their own homes, and Carner seamlessly includes this argument in this track.
'all i need' was released as the lead single alongside the second track on the album, 'in my mind'. Together, the two songs offer a powerful introduction to the project as a whole. By resisting the usual strategy of isolating singles from their album context, Carner keeps the tracks side by side, underscoring his commitment to narrative cohesion and storytelling through sequencing. Its infectious yet haunting lines of 'Why it's always me / Me me me me' transports you into the world of 'hopefully !', with its introspective placement of Carner in his family circle and other relations. Lines like 'I'm running from the belly of the beast / Admiring the guy I wanna be then, yeah / All I saw was me' remind us of children's storytelling, in a charming way -- as we're sure Carner is encountering a lot as a father-of-two (including in his appearance on CBeebies Bedtime Story series). Though its lingering final ring at the end of the track feels like the isolation of an identity crisis.
Known for his intimate and candid songwriting, Carner takes this to new heights by including his first examples of singing in tracks like 'lyin'. Having witnessed the live debut of this track at Loyle Carner’s intimate Hackney Church show on the day of the album’s release (where he openly shared how nerve-wracking it felt to sing publicly for the first time) its power resonates even more deeply. Its peacefully sung chorus of 'Just like the sun / You know that I've been / Patient, hoping this light I'm holding / Who I've become, something that we don't see,' invites listeners to a new side of Carner that we have not yet seen. This song gives voice to the anxiety that comes with life's unpredictability, where things rarely unfold in neat sequences or follow a clear cause-and-effect. 'strangers' shares anxieties of identity and how this works within a relationship, and we are treated with another sung chorus by Carner himself. This track, much like 'lyin', feels like an invitation into an interaction as if we are a fly on the wall.
The line 'Feel like my world is changing' in 'time to go' straight from 'lyin' continues to feed this fear of the time. Carner's lyrics like 'How much pressure on a man before he breaks? / My heart aches trying to find a way to ease the pain / Pressure on my brain / Killing the legend of my name / Wonder if I'll ever feel the same / I don't know, who am I supposed to be today?' linger long after the first listen of this track. Again and again, we are reminded of Carner's power in his songwriting on this project. This song poses questions of masculine strength (and thus mental health), as well as the evolution of identity, which we have almost seen from Carner in a documentarian way throughout his albums thus far. For a wider view of the record, this song zooms into a climax at the mid-point of the tracklist. Its simple yet effective final piano notes at the end of the song leave space for individual thought from the listener, as well as a humble release from the intense emotions discussed in this tune. 'horcrux' continues these questions of identity, home and family relations. We return to this idea of the digital world as the songs begin to wrap up with 'I hate my phone / But I keep it safe / The right time / Different place / The same line / Different days / The face I love / Pixelate' after taking a journey of being far from home and distant from the responsibilities there. As with 'all i need', Carner's inclusion of the digital world is that of an acknowledgment of the modern world alongside the lifestyle of a touring musician.
The final four tracks of the album feel like a snapshot of what Loyle Carner's life looks like right now. The sample of his son yelling 'echo' in the chorus of 'hopefully' reminds us of childlike joy, provoking an unavoidable wave of nostalgia. The use of 'echo' in this song also has notes of generation and parenthood and continuous cycles. While the sampling of his child is on an individual level, the chorus of 'You give me hope in human kind / Hope, yeah in human kind / Yeah, but are humans kind?', zooms back out on the wider world and turns the magnifying glass onto society. Benjamin Zephaniah's poetry holds as much resonance as ever with the current affairs of war, genocide, and famine and adds depth to Carner's questions on humankind.
Carner delved further into this idea of generational structures and nostalgia in 'purpose', with lyrics like 'My heart heaving, panic, but I couldn't find the meaning / I wonder if it's just my childhood I'm grieving' -- he truly does not shy away from any tough or sensitive topic. Navy Blue's feature on this is a beautiful compliment to Carner, with a similar level of introspection and vulnerability as his counterpart on this track. Both men are similar ages, making Navy Blue's lines of 'Little me couldn't wait to be older / The fears that I hold, gotta face 'em to know 'em' highlighting anxieties of ageing feel stark in a culture where many men cannot express such emotions. The simple yet effective structure of a verse each helps these artists to create a confessional tone in this track, that carries a safe space for people to perhaps take these conversations beyond the songs (something that we've seen Carner strive to do in his previous projects with taglines like "take these words and go forwards").
The inclusion of Nick Hakim's vocals in 'don't fix it' gives the track a dreamlike state, as we reach the end of the project like the final pages of a bedtime story. Like the prior track, we revisit this passage of time theme with beautiful lines like 'Yeah, a hundred years until you're touching forty / Watch it broken with me, don't fix it for me / Yeah, read the same book and told them different stories.' Here, Carner tackles the challenge of reworking generational pains and the agency that comes with this. Following this is the final track of the album, 'about time' -- the ideal closer to this record. The song closes the story being told in the wider project, yet leaving space for Loyle Carner (and his children) to grow. 'It's about time that I learnt some patience / Just to give it to him' addresses the importance of working on yourself to ensure you can be the most effective and present parent -- a lesson that Carner shares throughout the entire project. Much like the use of a voice note of his son in the opening track, this song closes with Carner's child asking 'Are you finished?' just before the album ends. In this moment, we see Carner switch from musician to parent and distinguish a boundary to be there for his family.
Just as you think Loyle Carner is at the highest point of his career, he pushes his success and musical ability even further. The inclusion of his own sung passages to compliment his rapping, Carner shows an additional layer of dimension possible in his songwriting, showing a duality of his talent and storytelling. In 'hopefully !', Carner successfully manages to tackle difficult topics on generation and identity seamlessly on a micro and macro scale. With well-chosen features and samples, Carner acknowledges voices that stand alongside him, as well as those who came before him and those who will come after him in the form of his children. This is a moving project that will stick with listeners long after 'about time' rings out, much like his previous albums remaining strong in fans' hearts over the years,
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