Album Review: The Art Of Loving by Olivia Dean

Though this testimony seems to lie at the very core of The Art of Loving - or so the titular opener suggests - this is not where we often find Dean elsewhere in the record. At its most thunderous moments, she is wading through the worst of it, stuck in the pitfalls of poor communication. "At my house / Four hands at the piano," she begins on "Loud".

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Two years after Messy cemented her as one of Britain's most compelling and engaging new voices, Olivia Dean returns with The Art of Loving. While this new record revisits themes of candid vulnerability and romantic encounters, it leans into a more expansive, direct and honest exploration of the self. Dean encapsulates love as a multifaceted emotion, singing with passion, warmth, sincerity and intimacy.

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Olivia Dean has dominated our feeds this summer. With just three singles out ahead of release, her 12-track second album, ‘The Art of Loving’ , has nonetheless become inescapable across social media, soundtracking sun-drenched montages, OOTDs and wedding proposals alike. The full project, however, proves to be less about viral immediacy and more a quiet, meditative exploration of love in all its hopeful, messy and bittersweet forms.

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Olivia Dean's 2023 debut 'Messy' was itself eagerly awaited; this successor arrives with yet more attention on the singer-songwriter, via various high-profile appearances including a lunchtime Pyramid Stage set at last summer's Glasto, and the poignant 'It Isn't Perfect But It Might Be' becoming the soundtrack to this year's Bridget Jones movie. There's a sense of warmth underpinning the Londoner's second full-length, recorded in an East London house-turned-studio. First impressions 'Nice To Each Other' and 'Lady Lady', both lean into a lighter, more flamboyant edge, momentarily revisiting the carefree spirit glimpsed on 'Messy', even as much of Olivia's work continues to dwell in more reflective, tender spaces.

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