By: Meghan Mahaffey
R&B artist Ravyn Lenae quickly became integral to my fall listening rotation when she
released her sophomore album Bird’s Eye on August 9, 2024. I admittedly was unfamiliar with
her previous work other than the singles, “Love Me Not” and “One Wish” featuring Childish
Gambino that preceded the album release. Despite my lack of familiarity with her discography,
Lenae drew me in with this release.
To many artists, genre can feel limiting and exclusionary– particularly in R&B spaces.
Lenae’s debut album, Hypnos, fits into the traditional mold of R&B that many listeners expect
from her. However, Bird’s Eye has diverged from the bounds of the genre in many ways. Her
traditional airy sounds still peak through in the record, but Lenae explores other parts of her
musical production. In discussing how she resisted genre boundaries with music magazine The
Fader, she explained, “unlocking parts of my brain allows me to tap into other things. I feel like I
owe it to myself to acknowledge all these parts of me.”
The album achieves a level of satisfying cohesion while still offering diversification of
emotion in each track. Many of the songs deal with emotions associated with heartbreak while
addressing this pain poetically. The sixth ballad on the record, “Love is Blind,” offers an
interesting take on the cliche of the track title. At first glance, one may assume the song
references a lover with whom Lenae immediately falls in love. However, her lyricism takes the
song in a different direction, singing, “How do you love me if you leave me behind? / I guess
they mean it when they say love is blind.” Lenae swerves by anticipated meanings in many of the
songs on the record, keeping her listeners on their toes. I look forward to diving deeper into her
discography after being pulled in by this record.
4/5
