''Lovegaze'' is the debut album by American singer and harpist Nailah Hunter, released on January 12, 2024, through Fat Possum Records. It was produced by Cicely Goulder and received acclaim from critics.

Background and recording

Hunter wrote and recorded the album in England with producer Cicely Goulder, and also collaborated with

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

composer

Ben Lukas Boysen Ben Lukas Boysen, also known by his stage name Hecq, is an electronic music composer based in Berlin. Biography Boysen studied classical guitar and piano as a child. He moved to Berlin in the early 2000s, setting up a studio called Hecq Audio, and ...

Critical reception

''Lovegaze'' received a score of 83 out of 100 on review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

based on seven critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". '' Uncut'' felt that "whether deployed as a meditation aid or an object for more focused listening, ''Lovegaze'' succeeds handily", while ''

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'' called it "a treat, like listening to an oracle from the depths of a digital cave".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Paul Simpson found that the album "places more of a focus on Hunter as a singer and songwriter rather than a harpist", in which regard she has "grown considerably as a vocalist", and also that it "demonstrates Hunter's range from soundscape weaver to art-pop maverick, and her music is never less than bewildering". '' Paste''s Devon Chodzin wrote that on ''Lovegaze'', Hunter's "ambient impulses are foundational but nowhere near the totality" as she "assembles the most bewitching elements of

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

and folk to create something transfixing, otherworldly and almost

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

in style". Madison Bloom of '' Pitchfork'' found that Hunter "emerges as a dexterous player and loose but imaginative composer" as "she cleverly incorporates elements of contemporary R&B, pop, and jazz". Matthew Neale, reviewing the album for '' Clash'', described it as a "promising debut album, then, with scintillating nods to the artist Hunter might yet become, one perhaps ready to write her own mythologies".

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2024 debut albums Fat Possum Records albums Nailah Hunter albums