RAYE has released one of the clear candidates to appear on all the lists of the best albums of 2026 with ‘THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE’, an ambitious second album that rebels against the culture of immediacy, offering an endless number of musical genres that trip over each other, and a conceptual experience inspired by the drama of musical theater.
‘THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE’ is making Record of the Week on JENESAISPOP and has just gone straight to No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart, the first time a RAYE album has done so (the first, ‘My 21st Century Blues’, went to No. 2 in 2023, blocked by Shania Twain). In the United States, the album is expected to debut around the top 15.
Today we wonder what the next single from ‘THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE’ should be. ‘Where Is My Husband?’ It was already number 1 at the time and is still up, ‘Nightingale Lane’ has reached the top 20 and ‘Click Clack Symphony’ with Hans Zimmer rises this week to number 11, not bad for such a peculiar composition. That is to say, ‘Click Clack Symphony’ is RAYE’s priority right now, but when the time comes to release the fourth single, Rachel Keen is not short of options.
Because ‘Beware.. the South London Lover Boy’ offers a facet similar to ‘Where Is My Husband?’, and ‘I Know You’re Hurting’ a similar one to ‘Nightingale Lane’, and we are not very clear that RAYE wants to reclaim his dance past with ‘Life Boat’ so soon, we propose ‘The WhatsApp Shakespeare’ as it is emblematic of the album’s proposal, but also different.
‘The WhatsApp Shakespeare’, today’s Song of the Day, tells a romantic “tragedy” contrasting two concepts very distant in time: the author of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – a work mentioned in the lyrics – and social networks. Thus it tells the story of a trickster who falls in love with Keen with great verses written via mobile message, but who later turns out to be a womanizer with several hidden girlfriends. RAYE discovers that she is the “seventh leading lady” in this film, in one of several moments on the album that use meta-commentary: the song reflects on herself and the album in general.
And it also mutates, because ‘The WhatsApp Shakespeare’ is, in principle, one of the songs on ‘THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE’ most inspired by the R&B and hip-hop of the previous album, reminiscent of songs like ‘Flip a Switch’ for its gloom. Of course, it is still integrated into the album using orchestral textures.
RAYE moves like a fish in water on this sound, pulling hooks out of his sleeve like a magician pulling tricks out of a hat. However, ‘The WhatsApp Shakespeare’ is also meta-musical and, in the part corresponding to the bridge – that of the seven actresses -, the song suddenly transforms into a big band that once again reveals the performative dimension of the song. Throughout the album, we are witnessing a musical drama as epic as it is ironic: it is evident that, behind all the hyperbole and drama of ‘The WhatsApp Shakespeare’ and the album as a whole, there is also a great dose of humor.
Charging …