Singer/songwriter, keyboardist, and producer
Olivia Dean
scored big with her 2023 debut
Messy
, a Top Ten hit in her native U.K. and a nominee for the 2023 Mercury Prize. Just before the release of her 2025 follow-up,
The Art of Loving
, she became the first woman since fellow BRIT School alum
Adele
to have three simultaneous Top Ten singles. The road was not without bumps.
Dean
had started work on songs for her second album in Los Angeles but found the material unsatisfying, so she returned home and rented a house in East London to write and record. The cozier and more familiar setting also enabled her to create
in one space with a smaller group of collaborators, making it less of a patchwork, aided most by
Zach Nahome
, producer or co-producer of every track. (
Bastian Langebæk
,
Matt Hales
, and
Max Wolfgang
constitute the returning cast.) Moved by artist
Mickalene Thomas
' exhibition All About Love, as well as the like-titled
bell hooks
book that inspired it,
thought more deeply about love as an ever-present aspect of life rather than a storybook concept. The first fruit was "Nice to Each Other," a breezy and strummy pop song, full of self-effacing humor, calling for her and her partner to live in the moment. It signified on multiple levels the release of a pressure valve, and was actually
's second Top Ten hit of the year, just after "Rein Me In," headlined by
Sam Fender
and featuring
as co-writer and duettist. The lightly galloping, gospel-inflected "Man I Need," an amiable request for her man to open up and let her into his life, completed
's Top Ten trifecta. "So Easy (To Fall in Love)," a charming number co-written by hitmaker
Amy Allen
, became
's fourth Top Ten single with a touch of early-'60s
Burt Bacharach
and
Hal David
. Most of what remains on
has as much easygoing appeal. That goes for moments when
confronts her man to ask for clarity (the fine retro-soul ballad "Close Up"), informs him that he's slipping ("Let Alone the One You Love," with loose, rustic, and elegant qualities akin to prime
Delaney & Bonnie
), and ingeniously relates the before-and-after effects of a split (the bobbing "Baby Steps"). "I've Seen It," the intimate acoustic finale, articulates
's philosophical outlook on love in stirring fashion. This is a couple cuts above her promising debut. ~ Andy Kellman