In his third album, three years after critically acclaimed Not Waving But Drowning, Loyle Carner (real name Ben Coyle-Larner) delves deeper into his struggle with identity to create his most honest album yet; a truly raw piece of music which I hope doesn’t get overlooked by the releases of the former.
It's no secret that Loyle’s relationship with his father has been one of his main creative inspirations established even in his debut single 'Tierney Terrace' flipping between him talking to his absent father and his late step-father, who passed away in 2014. Having recently become a father himself, Loyle utilises hugo to follow his journey of reconnecting with his roots and forgiving his father on the path to self-acceptance of his own new role as a dad.
'Hate', as the first single released from the album, paved the way for the ‘new’ Loyle: one who wasn’t afraid to get angry. Not only does he rap about “everything he hates,” tackling issues such as racial stereotyping and profiling, he foreshadows the pure rawness of the album in discussing his “fear” of “love, religion, drugs” and “the colour of [his] skin.” Moving into his most recent single 'Nobody Knows', Loyle beautifully samples 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen' by Pastor T.L Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir, in a similar way to which he uses 'The Lord Will Make A Way' in his debut album, in 'The Isle Of Arran'. Containing possibly the most important lyric in the album, 'Nobody Knows' shows Loyle face his struggle with being mixed race, and feeling as though he doesn’t belong: “I told the black man, he didn’t understand, I reached the white man he wouldn’t take my hand.”
Containing possibly the most important lyric in the album, 'Nobody Knows' shows Loyle face his struggle with being mixed race
'Nobody Knows' transitions nicely into MadLib produced 'Georgetown', the second single released from the album, taking a similar approach to his struggle with his identity. Featuring John Agard’s famous poem Half Caste, Loyle, yet again, takes inspiration from poetry following the title of his sophomore album Not Waving But Drowning, taken from Stevie Smith’s poem. Agard’s poetry is spoken by him during both the intro and outro of the song, and directly referenced by Loyle throughout, with the context behind the song only making the message more important. On his journey to reconnecting with his roots, Loyle visited Guyana twice during the production of hugo with his Guyanese father. From the production to the use of Agard’s poetry, to the context behind 'Georgetown', Loyle managed to create his most powerful single yet with the third track on hugo.
hugo’s singles are only a brief insight into the rawness of Loyle’s latest project; throughout the rest of the album he becomes even more open. The more mellow 'Speed of Plight' is carried by Loyle’s powerful tone and harsh lyrics about what he believes his role to be in the music industry, where Homerton discusses his other role; being a father. Taking a sound reminiscent of Not Waving But Drowning, Loyle reflects on his relationship with his own dad as he questions which kind of father he wants to be, creating a perfect midpoint in the album.
'Blood On My Nikes' proves to hold the most political message on hugo, taking inspiration from idol Kendrick Lamar’s 'Average Joe' and 'Alright'. Growing up in South London, Loyle comments on how normalised the acts of violence he witnessed were, particularly with knife crime, and worries about what the future holds for his son. 'A Lasting Place' resembles 'Still', questions the morality of admitting mistakes, which leads into the penultimate song, 'Pollyfilla', where he talks directly to his son about the issues he has tackled over the course of the album, such as fame, culture, and fatherhood, as almost a summary of what he has learnt on this journey.
However, the real warmth of the album comes with 'HGU', in which he openly “forgives” his father in his final stage of acceptance on his journey to becoming a good father. The album closes with an extract of Loyle and his father in a car, which as Loyle clarified in an interview with Apple Music, is from when his father taught him to drive during lockdown, hence the name of the album hugo, referring to the name of his dad’s car.
hugo uses its three singles to disguise itself as an album primarily about Loyle’s struggles with race, but really, it is so much more than just this. It’s a political message, a question to the music industry, a reconnection with his roots, a love letter to his son, forgiveness to his father, but most importantly; an acceptance in his own identity, and an album that encourages us to question our own. An album that arguably only has Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers as its greatest contender as most honest album of the year, it will be interesting to see where Loyle’s latest masterpiece charts against two of the most highly anticipated albums released the same day.
4.5/5
