Two years after her debut album “Messy,” Olivia Dean’s newest project “The Art of Loving” takes listeners on the journey that is falling in and out of love. Originally released on Sept. 26, this album has been pouring through my headphones ever since. With intimate lyrics weaved between thick, syrupy melodies, Dean covers it all – from love, to heartbreak, to the “something inbetween.”
Dean opens the album with the title track, which lays out the rest of the album beautifully: “It wasn’t all for nothing, yeah, you taught me something.” Beneath the chirping birds and the harmonizing strings, there’s that all-too-well-known mixture of ache and the appreciation for what once was.
We then sway into two of the pre-released singles, “Nice to Each Other” and “Lady Lady.” The former is an upbeat song conducted by airy guitars that encapsulate the push and pull of a relationship that has yet to be defined. Dean is optimistic about this fact, however, comparing her love to a plant that, if watered, has the potential to grow into something beautiful. The next single, “Lady Lady,” moves inward, centering its focus on self-love. With images of moving out of your house and no longer fitting in your clothes, Dean reflects on saying goodbye to your past selves. The bittersweet keys and Dean’s tender voice creates a sort of comfort in the uncertainty of what the future holds for you, even that means trying to find romance in solitude.
In “Close Up,” Dean embodies the heavy, soulful tone of Amy Winehouse that is utterly infectious. Like Alice chasing the White Rabbit, Dean feels separated from her partner and begins to question her place in the relationship. Now that she’s examined this love up close, however, she’s realized that it doesn’t look like love at all.
The most recent single, “So Easy (To Fall in Love),” brings melodies and instrumentals to the album that sound straight out of a movie soundtrack. Although about falling in love with someone else, at the song’s core we see Dean celebrating herself when she sings “I’m the perfect mix of Saturday night and the rest of your life,” as if to say “I love these things about me, so why shouldn’t you?”
With “Let Alone the One You Love” (my personal favorite), the album comes to an emotional climax in which Dean realizes her relationship is past mending. With a vintage soul sound, Dean reminds us that you are never too much for the ones that truly love you when she belts “if you knew me at all, you wouldn’t try to keep me small.”
Track seven, “Man I Need,” was the third single of the album, and received particular attention on TikTok. And no wonder. With a cinematic groove, it lays out the need for communication in a successful relationship. The words “talk to me” echoing throughout the song serve as a constant plea for openness. Especially with the lyric “stop making me read between the lines,” Dean shows that she knows exactly what she wants. We see this honesty appear again in “Something Inbetween” when she admits that she feels “tightly squeezed in” this love. Rather than breaking things off completely, she takes the risk and expresses openly that she just needs space.
The struggle for communication reaches new depths in “Loud,” when Dean and her partner have split, showcasing the richness and pain that her voice is capable of. The song, breakingly, comes in a full circle, moving from “four hands at the piano” to “here I am, two hands at the piano.”
Healing from this breakup (or any breakup) is not linear, which is painted beautifully in “Baby Steps.” Filled with affirmations like “this house gon’ love itself” and “it’s not the end, it’s the making of,” Dean embraces the importance of showing up for yourself during difficult times. Following the timeline of this relationship, “A Couple Minutes” begins with a delicate interlude that establishes a tenderness. Following this, Dean’s entrancing near-whisper lures us into a time-stopping moment between two people who once loved each other. The moment is intimate yet fleeting, but ultimately, Dean concludes that “love’s never wasted when it’s shared.”
The final track, “I’ve Seen It,” is spring in a song, even drawing on natural images like “seen it bloom and end in tears.” With the light strumming of a guitar, this track is the perfect note to end the album on, celebrating love in every form – from strangers in the park, to friends dancing around the dinner table. In the end, Dean concludes rather sentimentally that “I guess it’s been inside me all along,” showing that love is everywhere – you just have to look for it.
“The Art of Loving” is honest, intimate, and absolutely deserves all the recognition it has been getting. With both a gentleness and a cord of raw emotion, Dean explores all the places and shapes that love can be found. At times it feels warm, and other times it feels bitter. But ultimately, the human ability that is love, is art.