After four long years, Chicago native Ravyn Lenae‘s debut grapples with desire, self-worth, and exploring loneliness with hypnotic melodies and a voice distinguishably hers. She is a soft, yet tantalizing force to be reckoned with and her debut album is a testament to being one of the best and definitive voices in the alternative R&B sphere.
Despite releasing most of her music between 2017 and 2018, Lenae’s career started incredibly early. Having attended the Chicago High School for the Arts, Lenae would start writing songs at age 15. It was around this age when she linked with future collaborator, Monte Booker who would eventually form the group Zero Fatigue with rapper Smino. The three would collaborate on their own projects, generating Lenae’s first e.p: Moon Shoes, which would land her a partnership with Atlantic Records right after graduating.
Since then, with only two EP’s under her belt, the Zero Fatigue empress collected many accolades, performing at countless festivals and providing supporting vocals and verses for Chicago name-worthy acts like Mick Jenkins, Noname, and Jean Deaux.
With only two EP’s in her catalog, Lenae grew a fanbase around her eccentric and hip approach to R&B production and the poetry she implemented into her lyrics, all with a lush and harmonious voice. After dropping one of the year’s defining EP’s of any musical genre in 2018, Lenae went eerily quiet for the next few years, dropping the occasional feature but nothing more. It almost seemed as if she fell off the face of the Earth, until now. The Chicago artist has returned with her debut album, a project that aims to leave fans satisfied and wanting more.
Ravyn Lenae is special with her execution. For a debut album, Hypnos demonstrates all of her strengths, but particularly showcases the versatility in her singing. She doesn’t sing her heart out over a melody, she is glass and shapes and molds herself and bends with the instrumentation. There are many different musical influences on this album, yet Lenae’s voice matches every individual energy and tone of every song. Her voice floats over any instrumental, ranging from afrobeat inspired rhythms as demonstrated on the Sango produced “M.I.A” to near mimicking the pitch of the strums played on “Like You Do”. Lenae’s fluidity is visceral and her poetic lyrics are evident of the time and effort put into every song.
Hypnos brings together all her creative kinfolk on this project. From her musical buddies and long-term collaborators in Zero Fatigue to new faces such as Foushee & Mereba, there’s a lot of love in synergy present.
Long-term instrumentalist and collaborator Steve Lacy also makes an appearance on the project after executively producing Lenae’s timeless EP Sticky back in 2018. Despite having a hand in producing over a third of the album, Lacy takes a backseat and leaves Illinois producer Phoelix at the helm of the production team. The other producers that made the team are either long-term collaborators such as Luke Titus or are new to working with Lenae. The latter two, Kaytranada and Sango provide dance cuts that are new to Lenae’s style but provide such individualistic and fresh takes on the album.
The only two featured singers on Hypnos are also new to Lenae’s circle of collaborators, but provide great additions in their energy and vocal performances. Atlanta singer and pen maister Mereba hops on “Where I’m From”, a sandy and desert night tune not just to duet, but to match Lenae in every aspect. “Mercury” is a mirror to this sentiment. The song is a soft yet stern “fuck you” with lyrics to match. A song that gives up and coming feature artist Foushee more space to revel in the spiteful and honest spirit. Though the features are little, every artist making a guest appearance makes their mark and stands out.
Upon first listen, it seems like the only thing holding this album back is a lack of structure and a cohesive concept, but that’s not the case. Although the song structure of the album can seem out of pocket in certain sections, there’s actually a series of events told over Lenae’s lyrics that contribute to a more abstract concept. Lenae’s catalog mainly consists of songs with love as the main focus, while Hypnos takes a different approach. This album presents her growing anger towards mistreatment, and focuses on herself growing as a person instead.
There’s not a strong concept holding this album together, but there is a solid yet passive theme that is so loud despite being so soft-spoken. It’s in the song structure.
The album opener “Cameo” is a calm before the storm tune that sets a strong dissent for someone- a character that will be the subject of multiple songs on the albums. It’s angry, yet so controlled and collected. Then you have the following song that follows this sentiment while providing a euphoric experience. “Venom” sparks a groove in your body, and demands a little jig to its rhythm. The upbeat instrumental is a fun contrast with the lyrics being very moody and grouchy in context.
Immediately followed is “Inside Out” which starts to see this theme of Ravyn wanting to find joy in herself instead of in her partners. The theme is carried back and forth, with songs suggesting that she has found love and comfort in someone, while some songs explore her being by herself or going “M.I.A”.
“Satellites” finds Lenae reflecting on her past relationships with one being so good as the best friendship, and ponders if it could’ve been more or if that would be even good for her. The same sentiment is continued in “Lullaby”, where she’s wondering where this person is, and how they are with a new partner. She’s trying to ease these anxieties so she can rest. Hence, a lullaby.
The best moments on the project come from the songs that focus on Lenae’s introspective experiences with loneliness. Songs like “Deep in the world” are explorations of solitude. It’s a deeply atmospheric moment accompanied by an ethereal instrumental.
“Wish” is a grand and cinematic closer to the album, a final testament to Lenae showing her range and commitment to stepping out of her comfort zone musically and in songwriting. In what sounds like it was orchestrated within a Disney movie, “Wish” is Lenae singing into thin air, whispering words meant for a special someone that they will never hear, bringing the concept full circle.
The album can provide a strong emotional experience listening in order, but songs also give the same enjoyment while shuffled. The only consequence to this is that some songs are awkwardly placed next to each other, creating an off pace, whereas some songs are setting an intentionally sleepy mood followed by a stern wake-up seemingly out of nowhere.
“Hypnos is Lenae grappling with desire and worth”
There are genuinely no skips on this album. Despite a few awkward song placements, every song brings something enjoyable individually and as a congruent project. Hypnos recognizes the charm and appeal of every one of Ravyn Lenae’s previous projects and doubles down on the production and execution. Songs are danceable without the cheesy beats, some are euphoric in the feeling they trigger, and some are meant to listen to when you’re at your absolute worst.
Hypnos is Lenae grappling with desire and worth, seemingly ready to stop putting her faith and self into a partner only to be hurt and sidetracked in the end. Hypnos showcases a constant struggle of the heart between wanting someone that’s just not good for you to fill the void, and exploring a new stage in life, partnerless and alone for the better. Loneliness is a constant struggle, but Lenae manages to find peace and love in solitude.
