Today (Oct. 17), RAYE officially announced her long-awaited debut album, My 21st Century Blues, is set to release next year on Feb. 3. The forthcoming project marks the first time the London-bred hitmaker is putting out her own body of work. So far this year, fans have been able to enjoy singles like “Black Mascara” and “Hard Out Here.”
“My 21st Century Blues. My debut album. My ugly, complex, beautiful mosaic formed from broken pieces of glass from the last seven years of my life,” said RAYE via press release about the upcoming album. “My medicine, my anxieties, and traumas, my unfiltered thoughts. This music accompanied me through my bluest blues, crafted unapologetically and fearlessly with love and tears, and now I can only hope it might provide the same medicine it did for me, for those who choose to listen. I can’t believe it is really happening. My first album.”
Paired with the release are two brand new tracks, “Escapism” featuring 070 Shake and “The Thrill Is Gone.” On the latter offering, RAYE reached back into the vault to find a song she wrote years ago that she has now decided to share because of its honest message. “‘The Thrill is Gone’ is the story of the dying spark,” she said. “I became boring and predictable, and he became cold and dismissive. I captured this as a live recording, real raw vocals, no autotune, live instrumentation, recorded together in Jimmy Valentine’s gorgeous, ‘frozen in time’ studio in Los Angeles. The song was written some years back and always held a place in my heart.”
Outside of her own releases, RAYE can be heard lending her vocals to recent collaborations like “Midnight Strikes” by Amorphous, “WYS” by Tion Wayne, “Waterfall” by Disclosure, “I Don’t Want You” by Riton, “Go Girl” by Miraa May, and others.
Check out RAYE’s aforementioned “Escapism” and “The Thrill Is Gone” singles down below.