SONG.REVIEWS
East London singer-songwriter, trained at the BRIT School, who writes in a warm, retro-leaning soul and R&B register shaped by Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill, and her father's Al Green records. Her second album, The Art of Loving (2025), made her the first British solo woman since Adele to top the UK albums and singles charts simultaneously, and won her the Grammy for Best New Artist.
Olivia Dean's gospel-flecked demand for reciprocal effort has already cleared a billion Spotify streams and topped charts on four continents, and — unlike most of this week's chart — the acclaim genuinely tracks with the record.
Read review →Olivia Dean's bossa-nova throwback is a courtship song told from a position of total confidence rather than longing, and the Astrud Gilberto comparisons it's earned are not a stretch.
Read review →