Hey, everyone. Benchthony Presstano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new Dave album, The Boy Who Played the Harp.

Here we have a brand new album from UK-based rapper and songwriter Dave. It's his third album and his first in several years, as it's taken him a minute to follow up his 2021 album. We're all alone in this together. The amount of time and silence since this record has been a little deafening, I will say, especially considering the incredible commercial success Dave was seeing around his last two albums. Artistically and lyrically, he is truly a standout on the modern rap landscape, not only because it's rare for a UK rapper to see the level of international success he has, but also he is typically pegged as a conscious rapper, which, again, is something that's typically an uphill battle in terms of amassing the the audience size that Dave has in such a short amount of time.

Now, personally, I will say I have had my issues with Dave's music in the past. I wouldn't say his delivery to my ears is the most gripping or charismatic. Emotive, sure. I mean, if Dave knows how to convey anything in his music, it is his sensitivity. But in the past, I have found the logic or sentiment behind certain bars on his tracks and records to just not run that deep, in my opinion, even if his heart is in the right place, which is not a complete invalidation of his emotions, but more a question of how well he puts them to paper and frames them within a song, a concept, a narrative.

Now, after all of that, we have The Boy Who Played the Harp here. I'm happy to report that I am hearing a lot of improvements on multiple fronts with this record. It seems that maybe the time off Dave has taken between this and his last album may have been essential in terms of upping his writing and his maturity level. Because, while this album is a rap record at its core, it also feels a lot like a sermon or maybe even more so a conversation with Dave's audience, one that is set to a lot of refined layers of piano and gentle, very easy-going beats. For example, I know he has worked with the great James Blake in the past, but I really feel his presence and influence on the opening track of this record "History," as I think the electronic, spacy, futuristic, blue-eyed soul style that James typically dabbles in fits really well with Dave's rapping, and it gives this record a lot of emotional impact right out of the gate.

But getting more into the bars and themes around these tracks, we have the following cut "175 Months," which is essentially a meditation on Dave's spirituality, really a conversation with God in a way. As Dave explores his aversion to walking the righteous path, because sometimes temptation does overtake him, and it's really an emotional roller coaster watching him work through it all, reasoning with the lows and challenges of his life and wondering why exactly God would allow it to happen, but also seeking guidance from God in those very difficult moments and looking to serve a greater purpose, too. There's a similar and interesting dynamic going on with the track "Chapter 16," which is a more direct and lyrical conversation with grind legend, Kano, somebody who obviously Dave looks up to artistically and personally. And he and Kano essentially go back and forth on this record about their respective perspectives as artists from different generations in UK hip hop that have a mutual respect for one another. It's a track that is heartening, it's smart, it's thoughtful. After a while, you almost forget that you're listening to a song because in a lot of ways, it sounds like a genuine conversation.

Dave also brings a few other notable collabs with his contemporaries on this one, too, like Jim Legxacy on "No Weapons," one of my favorites from the album, Truly. I'm really happy to see Jim here after Dave's appearance on Black British Music. And Jim delivers a stellar hook on this one, between Dave's verse about surviving and thriving. Again, Dave lyrically finds himself struggling with temptation at points and figuring out how to be the man he thinks he should be. We also have "Raindance" with Tems on here, which I think does well to bring a certain sensuality to this track that is attempting to play a romantic angle. But there's just something about Dave's very sour and moody delivery that I think doesn't really lend itself too well to a song of this style. The song "Selfish," I feel like, does lack a bit of an overall cohesive lyrical vision that other songs on this record do a better job of executing. "My 27th Birthday," I would say this as well for to an extent, not because there isn't a message here. There certainly is. But it does end up being kind of a gishgallop, with the track's seven-plus-minute length, as I do think there are some points and observations that most definitely could have been cut while still leaving the overall message and point of the song intact.

As Dave does spend a lot of time going through all of the hypocrisies and double standards that he observes in his everyday existence, commenting on these greater injustices in the world, too. He just piles on so many of these different examples that just run so impossibly deep that it feels almost defeatist to an extent, especially as Dave throws out this weird couple of bars about telling people to just listen to the music, and why do you need other people's thoughts about the music? Saying that some criticisms of his tracks in the past have been constructive, but most of it is forced. I mean, how exactly are we quantifying that? I don't know. Regardless of Dave's intentions behind these lines, it just comes across as like an anti-discourse, anti-conversation, and a little lame. Again, I do appreciate the deep introspection of this track, but I feel like Dave could have done more than just display the guilt he's feeling to his audience here, especially when you're talking about things as frivolous as a vacation in Dubai.

I will say I do think this album picks up pretty well in its final moments. We have "Marvelous," which features a lot of melodic flows, and narratively is a dramatic depiction of a kid who gets caught up in gang life. And Dave brings this fatherly energy to the track by laying it all out as a cautionary tale, as this kid sees his options and potential, and prospects go down the drain due to his life choices. Then there's also "Fairchild," which I think is one of the most bold, ambitious, and insane songs Dave, frankly, has ever recorded. And a refreshing one, in my opinion, because there have been some bars in the past regarding gender politics that I think have been a little questionable or just haven't really hit with the strength or power that I think Dave intended them to have. But this track is essentially a bit of multi-phase storytelling, relaying the perspective of a woman who is essentially dealing with harassment and sexual abuse due to male entitlement in the club scene. The start of the song, while it does read almost like a bit of a PSA, once Nicole Black's vocals kick in and she starts telling all of this from her first-person perspective, and then you have the instrumentation swelling and Dave rapping along with her, the track really intensifies in an incredible way. It's shocking, it's chilling, and frankly, a song that I think a lot of people could do with hearing.

Now, the title track of this record, the closer, is very interesting because I think Dave relays a lot of similar feelings that we've already heard him explore on the "27th Birthday" track. But in a lot of ways, it's a much more compelling thought experiment because he thinks back to a bunch of different contexts in history where there might have been some great injustice going on, and he wonders whether or not he would have been on the right side of history in those moments, given that now retrospectively with 20/20 vision, he can look at those times and be like, 'Oh, yeah, that was wrong. This was wrong. This was the moral decision to make at this time.' And he questions himself, thinking like, 'Well, maybe I wouldn't have made the right choice at that point in time because look at the choice I'm making now.' Like not speaking out against the genocide in Gaza, for example. Now, by virtue of bars like this, Dave is actually illustrating this and pointing out these issues. And he does finish the song off with a pretty strong lyrical conclusion about where he is, where he wants to be, and where he thinks others should be as well.

"My ancestors told me that my life is prophecy, and it's not just me. It's a whole generation of people gradually making change. There ain't a greater task. Shift that, make a name, make a start, they'll know what they're facing when they ask with the will of David and my heart, the story of the boy who played the harp."

But yeah, again, pretty sensible and strong conclusion for this song and this record as a whole. And overall, it's an album that I still have some issues with here and there. I think there are some shortcomings with that lull of songs around the midpoint, other tracks not really doing as well to make their intended point as others. I think the album is a little lacking in terms of a macro picture and vision, with all of these songs effectively or more effectively reinforcing each other. But with that being said, I do think these songs contain some of Dave's best writing yet, some of his most thoughtful bars and song concepts for sure, which is why I'm feeling a strong seven on the album.

Anthony Fantano. Dave. Forever.