Pastel colors, florals, and men and women dancing along the streets of New York City are all images depicted throughout Olivia Dean’s second studio album, The Art of Loving. This melange of jazz, pop, and R&B takes listeners on a journey of understanding what love is and the different types of love we encounter while romanticizing different aspects of life.
From her debut album Messy to now The Art of Loving, Dean and her production team, consisting of Zach Nahome, John the Blind, and Julian Brunetta, have collaborated to produce music that connects deeply with their audience. Through a thoughtful production process, the complexity of love’s beauty and qualms is captured by in the albums’ various instruments and beats.
The Art of Loving albumn kicks off with the track “The Art of Loving,” a base of soft piano layered with harmonies that sets the stage for the rest of the album. The first few lines off of the track express the central themes of the rest of the album: “It’s the art of loving/ It wasn’t all for nothing/ Yeah, you taught me something.”
The Art of Loving album includes Dean’s signature style of blending classic pop, neo-soul, jazz and soft rock is seen in tracks like “Baby Steps,” “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” and “Man I Need.” “Man I Need” is the most streamed song on the album, reaching over 100 million streams on Spotify. Dean’s unique sound and instrumentation produce danceable beats, which is depicted in the music video for “Man I Need” and “So easy (To Fall in Love).” The dance numbers in the music videos include contemporary dance and street jazz that match the vibe of her songs perfectly. These two upbeat songs are the perfect mix of summer pop and fall jazz melodies.
The songs off Dean’s album are not only danceable, they are also thought-provoking and vulnerable. Tracks like “Loud,” “A Couple minutes,” “Lady Lady,” and “Close up” provide a raw outlook into Dean’s experiences of being in love. Dean uses soft piano melodies with storytelling of her experiences in past relationships, whether they were good or bad.
Another fan favorite of this album is “A Couple Minutes,” which begins with a guitar riff. This riff is sampled from Hot Chocolate’s 1971 song “We Had True Love.” Through its lyrics, “A Couple Minutes” creates nostalgic images that many can relate to: “Back on your sofa/ Of course, I still care/ Love’s never wasted/ When it’s shared.” The nostalgia wrapped into Dean’s melodies and lyrics have led fans to compare another of her songs, “I’ve Seen It,” to another timeless, soulful song, “Just the Two of Us” by Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers.
A soft guitar strum and slow piano melody of the piano start the album’s final song, “I’ve Seen it.” This uplifting song is the embodiment of the whole album: no matter the hardships and pain that comes with being in love, it is everywhere we go. This exceptional ending to the album leaves listeners wanting more while also providing them the perfect closing to the album: “I’ve seen the films/ I’ve read the books/ My Mum and Dad, they got me hooked/ The fairy tale, the search goes on and on.”
From start to finish, Dean tells an impeccable story about her love life and the knowledge she has acquired throughout her journey. Her album is a reassurance to her listeners that they are not alone in their own love stories. The Art of Loving earns 5/5.
