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Hopefully!
Studio album by
Loyle Carner
Released20 June 2025 (2025-06-20)
GenreHip-hop
Length37:44
LabelVirgin EMI
Producer
  • Loyle Carner
  • Zach Nahome
  • Aviram Barath
  • Nick Mills
  • Harvey Grant
  • EMIL
  • FloFilz
  • Nick Hakim
Loyle Carner chronology
Hugo
(2022) 		Hopefully!
(2025)
Singles from Hopefully!
  1. "All I Need / In My Mind"
    Released: 9 April 2025
  2. "About Time / Lyin"
    Released: 6 May 2025
  3. "Time to Go"
    Released: 16 June 2025

Hopefully! (stylised as hopefully !) is the fourth studio album by English hip-hop artist Loyle Carner. It was released on 20 June 2025 through Virgin EMI Records and features guest appearances from Navy Blue and Nick Hakim.

Background

[edit]

Hopefully! comes after Loyle Carner's critically acclaimed 2022 album, Hugo. On 9 April 2025, Loyle Carner released the double single "All I Need / In My Mind".[1] On 23 April, he announced the album's title and release date.[2] The following day, he announced a world tour in support of the album.[3]

On 6 May 2025, Loyle Carner released another double single, "About Time / Lyin".[4] The self-directed music video for "Lyin" was released on 20 May 2025.[5] In an interview with Billboard, Loyle Carner discussed how becoming a father of two has shaped his creative process and influenced the themes of fatherhood and personal growth on Hopefully!.[6]

The final single, "Time to Go", was released on 16 June 2025.[7] That same day, the tracklist of the album was revealed.

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic82/100[8]
Review scores
SourceRating
DIY[9]
The Guardian[10]
NME[11]
Clash8/10[12]
The Line of Best Fit8/10[13]

Upon release, Hopefully! was met with widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 9 critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[8]

Peter Martin of DIY called the album "as moving as it is musically satisfying".[9] Writing in The Guardian, Rachel Aroesti described Carner's songwriting as "magical", and said Hopefully! is his "most impressive work to date".[10] Liberty Dunworth of NME wrote that on the album Loyle Carner "broadens his horizons", and that "this isn't just Loyle Carner at his most refined, it is the start of a new chapter".[11] Aimee Phillips of Clash commented that "while 'hopefully!' is thematically rich, it’s not adventurous sonically" and that it "isn't trying to be groundbreaking. It's trying to be honest".[12] Reviewing the album for The Line of Best Fit, Riley Moquin wrote that "vocally, the rapper pushes his boundaries more than perhaps ever before".[13]

Track listing

[edit]
Hopefully! track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Feel at Home"
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Nahome
2:34
2."In My Mind"
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Finn Carter
  • Harvey Grant
  • Joe MacLaren
  • Mark Mollison
  • Mills
  • Richard Spaven
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Grant
4:09
3."All I Need"
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
3:33
4."Lyin"
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Marla Kether
  • Mills
  • Spaven
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Grant[a]
3:58
5."Time to Go"
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Carter
  • MacLaren
  • Mollison
  • Mills
  • Spaven
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Grant[a]
3:29
6."Horcrux"
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Carter
  • Grant
  • MacLaren
  • Mills
  • Spaven
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Grant[a]
3:30
7."Strangers"
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Grant
  • Mills
  • Nahome
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Nahome
  • Grant[a]
2:35
8."Hopefully !" (with Benjamin Zephaniah)
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Grant
  • Mills
  • Nahome
2:51
9."Purpose" (with Navy Blue)
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • EMIL
  • FloFilz
  • Mills
  • Grant[a]
3:17
10."Don't Fix It" (with Nick Hakim)
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Nick Hakim
  • Mills
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Hakim
  • Mills
4:24
11."About Time"
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Barath
  • Coyle-Larner
  • Mills
  • Grant[a]
3:18
Total length:37:44

Notes

[edit]
  • ^[a] signifies an additional producer.
  • All track titles are stylised in all lowercase.[14]
  • "Hopefully !" samples a clip of Benjamin Zephaniah's speech on the Brixton riots.[6]

Personnel

[edit]

Credits adapted from Tidal.[15]

Musicians

[edit]
  • Loyle Carner – vocals
  • Aviram Barath – synthesizer (tracks 1–8, 10, 11), piano (1–3, 5, 8), background vocals (2), drum machine (3, 6), vocals (3, 11); bass guitar, glockenspiel (7); Mellotron (10), guitar (11)
  • Calum Duncan – guitar (1, 3), bass guitar (1)
  • Zach Nahome – programming (1), guitar (7)
  • Harvey Grant – sampler (2, 8), background vocals (2), synthesizer (3–8, 11), vocals (6), guitar (7), saxophone (8)
  • Richard Spaven – drums (2–6, 11), background vocals (2)
  • Finn Carter – background vocals, Rhodes (2); synthesizer (5), piano (6, 11)
  • Mark Mollison – guitar (2, 3, 5), background vocals (2)
  • Joe MacLaren – bass guitar (2, 5, 6), background vocals (2)
  • Nick Mills – guitar (3, 4, 7, 8, 11), Rhodes (3), background vocals (8), synthesizer (10)
  • Marla Kether – bass guitar (3, 4)
  • Imraan Peleker – guitar (3, 4)
  • Rosie Lowe – background vocals (4, 9), vocals (6, 11)
  • Puma Blue – background vocals (5)
  • Benjamin Zephaniah – spoken word (8)
  • Navy Blue – vocals (9)
  • Nick Hakim – guitar, Mellotron, vocals (10)
  • Yves Fernandez – bass guitar (11)

Technical

[edit]
  • Lexxx – mixing
  • Nick Mills – mixing (1, 4–11), engineering (all tracks)
  • Matt Colton – mastering
  • Neil Goody – engineering (3), engineering assistance (1, 2, 6–9, 11)
  • Dan Cox – engineering (3–5), engineering assistance (6–9, 11)
  • Aviram Barath – engineering (10)
  • Ary Maudit – engineering assistance (6)
  • Liam Weiland – engineering assistance (7, 8)
  • Katie Foreman – engineering assistance (7)
  • Jack Manning – engineering assistance (10)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Richards, Will (10 April 2025). "Loyle Carner returns with two new songs, 'All I Need' and 'In My Mind'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  2. ^ Graye, Megan (25 April 2025). "Loyle Carner announces brand new album 'Hopefully!'". DIY. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  3. ^ Dunworth, Liberty (24 April 2025). "Loyle Carner announces new album 'Hopefully!' and 2025 world tour". NME. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  4. ^ Graye, Megan (7 May 2025). "Loyle Carner drops two more singles 'About Time / Lyin' ahead of new album 'Hopefully!'". DIY. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  5. ^ Taylor, Sam (21 May 2025). "Loyle Carner has shared a self-directed music video for his new single 'lyin'". Dork. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  6. ^ a b Smith, Thomas (24 April 2025). "Loyle Carner On How Fatherhood and Hitting 30 Shaped His Indie-Inspired New LP: ' I'm A Person I Never Thought I Could Become'". Billboard. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  7. ^ Loyle Carner [@LoyleCarner] (16 June 2025). "one last song before hopefully ! drops friday time to go, out now" (Tweet). Retrieved 20 June 2025 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ a b "Hopefully ! by Loyle Carner". Metacritic. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  9. ^ a b Martin, Peter (20 June 2025). "Album Review: Loyle Carner - hopefully". DIY. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  10. ^ a b Aroesti, Rachel (19 June 2025). "Loyle Carner: Hopefully! review – rap sweetheart faces family, fear and the feels". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  11. ^ a b Dunworth, Liberty (20 June 2025). "Loyle Carner – 'Hopefully!' review: a masterful balance of melancholy and perseverance". NME. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  12. ^ a b Phillips, Aimee (19 June 2025). "Loyle Carner – hopefully! Soulful and settled - this is the London wordsmith at his most creative". Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  13. ^ a b Moquin, Riley (19 June 2025). "Loyle Carner finds purpose in love and family on hopefully!". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  14. ^ "hopefully ! by Loyle Carner on Apple Music". Apple Music. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  15. ^ "hopefully ! / Loyle Carner / Credits". Tidal. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
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