By Eliana Fermi
There’s a soulfulness in Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving, a quiet, soulful confidence that comes from knowing one’s emotional topography. The record unfolds through twelve tracks of contemporary R&B and modern soul pop, its atmosphere tactile, every vocal line putting soul in the air.
“The Art of Loving (Intro)” is an a Capela motion with Dean’s voice buzzing in tone and harmonies. “Lady Lady” rains rhythm with Dean’s singing, conveying a sense of percussion. Dean’s timbre, equal parts velvet and flame, turns each syllable into touch.
In “Close Up,” the piano becomes a character, a ghost of an earlier love humming beneath her soulful melody. The brass enters to support the organ hums. When she reaches “Let Alone the One You Love,” the world seems to slow as her voice bends around the emotion of the lyrics, her falsetto sensual and controlled.
The cinematic arc lands in “Loud,” where acoustic intimacy swells into widescreen grandeur with strings, layered harmonies, and piano parts with resonance. The final song, “I’ve Seen It,” lingers in the mind with its gentle groove, part smooth soul, part pop folk, brushed with a Dean’s sensual mist.
Listening to Olivia Dean singing will stimulate something inside your heartbeat. Her tone is surrounded by soulful rhythm and charismatic vocal hues. The Art of Loving is worth your attention; that’s the short of it!
