Ravyn Lenae – ‘Blue Island’ review: R&B’s wunderkind finds her new pop groove

In the lead up to ‘Blue Island’, Ravyn Lenae’s third studio album, the singer told The Fader she hoped to free herself of “preconceived notions about Blackness” and what’s expected of her as an R&B stalwart: “It’s fun to challenge the idea of what R&B is supposed to sound like, what pop is supposed to sound like… and really say ‘fuck all of that’ and do my own thing.” Lenae took a pop-tinged R&B approach on 2022’s ‘Hypnos’ and 2024’s ‘Bird’s Eye’, but on album three ‘Blue Island’, that tinge lends way to a pop tidal wave with dashes of ’00s indie rock and ’80s new wave and electro-funk.

Lenae fuses a retro flair with modern sensibilities on single ‘Handle’, which serves as the album’s diffident opener, but the record only gets more interesting from here. Chameleonic tracks that transform halfway through – the snappy synthpop experiment ‘Saturday Night’, ballad hybrid ‘Find It One Day’, chaotic closer ‘Let Us In’, the sci-fi-esque ‘Wish You Well’ – are the album’s strongest points: catchy and toeing the line between familiar melodies and unexpected twists, traversing everything from alt-rock to folk rock and even indietronica. Looking at Lenae’s inspirations for the project (Santigold, Tracy Chapman, Janet Jackson, Blondie, The Sundays, The Cranberries, Martin Rev), it’s easy to see where the eclectic mix of sounds that refuses to stay idle comes from.

Much like on past records, Lenae is strongest when she plays with her breathy, honeyed soprano voice – and that is amplified by the indie-leaning production and nostalgic flair of the record. On the pre-chorus and chorus of ‘Sew Me Back Together’, she combines multiple registers for layered harmonies that feel both bubbly and bouncy. Guitar-led ‘Familiar Dreams’ is summery and skittery, with pop whimsy and vocal staccatos taking over. The vocal layering crown, however, goes to standout collab ‘Babygirl’, which sees Lenae joining forces with Doechii, fusing the star’s velvet vocals with jazzy inflections and Doechii’s laser-cut rap.

Borrowing its name from the Chicago suburb city where she was born, ‘Blue Island’ feels like Lenae’s homecoming. We can hear her experimenting with the sounds she grew up with while keeping the core of her success. She largely succeeds, even if her explorations of modern love, a perennial source of inspo for twentysomething musicians, doesn’t always feel the most original. Still, her unabashedly giving in to pop without attempting to replicate the viral formula of her chart-topper ‘Love Me Not’ is a testament to her desire not to be boxed in.

Through each of the 14 distinct tracks in ‘Blue Island’, Lenae breaks free from expectations and opens the door to her home. This is perhaps most explicit in ‘Never Let Me Go’, which interpolates Chuck Jackson’s ‘Love Of You’, and features a candid call with her grandparents. It’s her way of letting us in on the process, the trials and tribulations that shaped what ultimately became a fully idiosyncratic album that proves Lenae is blazing through a new path.