Raye informed music lovers on “Escapism” that she might present me context in the event that they cared to hear, and that they did. On her debut album, My 21st Century Blues, the singer leaves no stone unturned. Throughout the 15 tracks, Raye addresses her former label’s mistreatment, battling melancholy, and different traumatic experiences she has needed to overcome so as to get to the place she is as we speak.
On the only “Ice Cream Man,” she painfully outlines the lifetime of a sexual assault survivor. For her Jimmy Kimmel Dwell efficiency, she poured that heartbreak everywhere in the stage for viewers to take a seat with. Comfortably positioned on the piano, backed by different musicians, Raye opens with the darkish reality of how so many aspiring musicians are preyed upon. The refrain, “Coming just like the ice cream man / ‘Til I felt his ice-cold palms / And the way I pay the value now, rattling / God rattling, no what the, God rattling / Every part you probably did, it left me in a wreck / And no, I didn’t say a phrase, I assume that proves it,” broadcasts that emotional spiral assault survivors discover themselves on after they’ve been violated.
Nonetheless, after increase the power to reclaim her energy, Raye belts out, “Trigger I’m a girl / I’m a really f*cking courageous robust lady/ And I’ll be damned if I let a person wreck / How I stroll, how I discuss, how I do it / Man, I’ve been damaged for a second, I’ve been by way of it no / It’s even more durable to be courageous alone / Was a lady, now I’m grown, I’m a girl / A really f*cking robust lady.”
When requested concerning the challenge, in an announcement, Raye stated, “My twenty first Century Blues. My debut album. My ugly, complicated, lovely mosaic fashioned from damaged items of glass from the final seven years of my life. This music is my medication, my anxieties, traumas, and unfiltered ideas. The music on this document empowered me to face my demons and has accompanied me by way of my bluest blues, crafted unapologetically and fearlessly with love and tears. Now I can solely hope it’d present the identical medication it did for me for many who select to hear.”
The musician later added, “A few of these songs I’ve had for years that I’ve wanted to precise and share. Earlier than, I used to be informed it was too uncomfortable and that audiences don’t wish to hear it. There’s no sonic through-line. It was simply creating no matter felt proper for the story I needed to inform over it. It simply feels free.”
Watch Raye’s full efficiency of “Ice Cream Man” above.
