Raye, Glasgow review: 'huge emotional power'
For Raye, it seems having the freedom to do what she wants means doing everything and doing it well, writes David Pollock
Raye, Hydro, Glasgow ★★★★
After leaving a major label and going independent five years ago, London singer Raye’s huge success (the delayed 2023 debut album My 21st Century Blues was a critical and commercial hit) gives her an aura of confidence and affirmation. As echoed in her lyrics, she’s tangibly undergone setbacks and heartbreak, and come out fighting.
More than once during the first of a two-night Hydro residency, she expressed relief at her artistic independence, and her truest fans clearly adored her unfettered, unflinching emotional honesty. Primarily, though, this was a party, with Raye and her two backing singers dressed in matching, Supremes-style red sequined gowns, and a full band of around 15 musicians (including string and horn sections) in suits and dickie-bows.
True to its ‘This Tour May Contain New Music’ title, music from the forthcoming second album This Music May Contain Hope was revealed, and it sounded great. The brassy, Beyonce-like hit Where is My Husband! and the bold, soulful Beware the South London Lover Boy are cut from similar, lover-reproaching cloth, but there was diversity to the nostalgic epic Nightingale Lane and a real compositional uniqueness to Click Clack Symphony, orchestral pop to the rhythm of stomping high heels.
Independence, of course, means getting to do what you want, and although Raye joked about her team telling her a jazz club-set segment was the show’s weakest part, it did feel overegged and a bit Strictly Come Dancing, even if it let her show off her gorgeously smoky jazz tones with a cover of Fly Me to the Moon.
On the other hand, her voice’s versatility and authentically lent huge emotional power to Ice Cream Man, about her own experience of surviving sexual assault, and I Know You’re Hurting, an outstretched hand to anyone considering suicide, and her forthright explanations of them as such gave the songs extraordinary weight.
Then just minutes later, she’d seamlessly moved into a clubby, euphoric medley featuring hits like Secrets, You Don’t Know Me and Prada, and the glorious expression of positivity Joy. For Raye, it seems having the freedom to do what she wants means doing everything and doing it well.
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.