The Chicago singer-songwriter expands her sonic horizons on this gorgeous, ambitious second album Ravyn Lenae must be R&B ’s best kept secret. While her contemporaries SZA , H.E.
R. and Summer Walker are bona fide pop stars, for years Lenae has remained a cult favourite. But the Chicagoan’s efforts to push the boundaries of pop R&B should become more widely recognised with her second album ‘Bird’s Eye’.
Like Aaliyah or even Billie Eilish , Lenae sings softly – her music fluttery and furtive. She generated buzz as a teen, joining Smino’s Midwestern collective Zero Fatigue and working with producer Monte Booker. Starting in 2015, Lenae released a trilogy of EPs culminating in the Steve Lacy -produced ‘Crush’.
After a lull, she reemerged in 2022 with ‘Hypnos’, a debut album that was auspicious if occasionally diffident. ‘Bird’s Eye’, though, feels intentional – like its creator has come into their own. Now 25, Lenae has settled in Los Angeles and for this record tapped in new collaborator: Californian hip-hop stalwart DJ Dahi , renowned for his productions with Kendrick Lamar , Travis Scott and Drake .
As executive producer, Dahi brings shiny synths, snappy drums and flair to Lenae’s dreamy aesthetics. Lenae opens ‘Bird’s Eye’ with the whimsical ‘Genius’, a bouncy throwback to 2017’s funky single ‘Sticky’, about simply getting by in life. But, nothing is predictable here.
Lenae presents what is her equivalent of Solange ’s ‘Sol-.