The first time I heard an Olivia Dean song, I was watching the trailer for the fourth installment of “Bridget Jones.” I immediately saved the song and quickly worked my way through the rest of Dean’s discography. When she announced a new album this summer, I could not have been more excited. Thankfully, my excitement was validated: “The Art of Loving” is everything I could have wanted and more.
Released Friday, “The Art of Loving” is Dean’s sophomore album, following up her 2023 debut “Messy.” Featuring 12 songs and clocking in at just under 35 minutes, “The Art of Loving” is an album designed for repeated listening.
The album’s release was preceded by three singles: “Lady Lady,” “Nice To Each Other” and “Man I Need,” with the last two going viral on TikTok. These singles were perfect indicators for the rest of the album to come.
As the album’s title suggests, its central theme is love. However, Dean does not solely explore love in its romantic context; she also sings about it in a platonic context, offering listeners a love song for every possible situation.
In “Baby Steps,” Dean describes the act of relearning to love yourself after a hard breakup. She sings, “I’ll be my own pair of safe hands / It’s not the end, it’s the making of” — indicating the newness of her loneliness and the struggle of getting used to the feeling again.
In “Close Up,” my favorite on the album for its relatability, Dean highlights the complexity of mixed signals. She sings, “Cause you don’t make it easy, now I’m all close up / I can’t tell if you need me or want me all that much / Did I misread completely every single touch? / Do you even see mе?”
While the album’s easy relatability and unifying theme drew me in, what stuck with me was how effortlessly the album threaded it all together. Although “The Art of Loving” is mostly an R&B and pop blended album, Dean also finds a way to feature hints of other musical genres.
“So Easy (To Fall in Love)” is a fun song that leans heavily into bossa nova and jazz sounds, easily combining acoustic guitar with percussion.
This melting pot of musical influence makes the album much more fun to listen to, and is the main reason why I have had it on constant repeat since its release.
The melding of musical sounds adds to its seamless flow, and I also love how the album can be played in any order and still make sense linearly.
Despite the fact that there is an intro track, after my first listen, I have only listened to the album shuffled. Yet, even then, it still makes perfect sense. Dean does such a great job of interweaving passion and an overarching sound in every song that it truly makes no difference whether I listen to the album shuffled or not.
As a relatively new Olivia Dean fan, I see this album as the perfect introduction for anyone who’s ever danced around the idea of listening to her. While I’ve already listened to the album dozens of times, it’s unlikely I’ll be taking it off repeat any time soon.
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