This Music May Contain Hope - stylised with a closing period - is Raye's second album and the follow-up to her era-defining 2023 debut 'My 21st Century Blues'. Where that record arrived as a survivor's statement about her seven-year wait to release an album on her own terms, this record is structured as a four-act song cycle - Act I (Autumn), Act II (Winter), Act III (Spring) and Act IV (Summer) - taking the listener through a full year of grief, recovery, and the stubborn return of joy.

Produced with longtime collaborators Mike Sabath, Tom Richards, Chris Hill and Pete Clements, and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra on the opening Intro: Girl Under The Grey Cloud and closing Fin, the record ranges from big-band swing to orchestral ballad to confessional pop. Highlights include the propulsive I Will Overcome, the intimate The WhatsApp Shakespeare, and the closer pair Happier Times Ahead / Fin. It is an unusually ambitious piece of mainstream British pop songwriting - closer in scale to Fiona Apple or a Motown concept album than to contemporary radio.

• Genres: Jazz / Funk / Soul / Pop
• Label: Human Re Sources
• Originally released: 2026
• Format: Vinyl 2xLP, Gatefold, Stereo, Marigold Yellow Coloured Vinyl

Tracklist

Side A - Act I (Autumn)
Intro: Girl Under The Grey Cloud.
I Will Overcome.
Beware.. The South London Lover Boy.
The WhatsApp Shakespeare.

Side B - Act II (Winter)
Winter Woman.
Click Clack Symphony.
I Know You're Hurting.
Life Boat.

Side C - Act III (Spring)
I Hate The Way I Look Today.
Goodbye Henry.
Nightingale Lane.
Skin & Bones.

Side D - Act IV (Summer)
Where Is My Husband!
Fields.
Joy.
Happier Times Ahead.
Fin.