Ravyn Lenae has a No. 5 Hot 100 hit, a fan base that arrived in a hurry and, as of Friday (Aug. 7), a third album that spends 14 songs refusing to be filed under one genre. Blue Island, named for her hometown in Illinois, follows 2022's HYPNOS and 2024's Bird's Eye and comes after “Love Me Not” peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100 more than a year after its release, per Rolling Stone.
The sound is wide open. Pitchfork says she again works with the producer DJ Dahi, with multi-instrumentalist Ely Rise and guitarist Flanafi, on ’80s-inspired arrangements that variously “erupt with color and simmer into mellow grooves.” Doechii appears on “Babygirl,” which Rolling Stone calls Fugees-esque, and Dominic Fike on the acoustic duet “Reputation.”
An argument about genre, answered on the record
Lenae has spent the last year pushing back on the idea that she is only an R&B artist. “It's really a disservice to Black women to think that we have to be one way or the other,” she told Rolling Stone. Late last year, responding to online commentary about her Blackness, she wrote that “we can be whatever we want to be,” citing Chaka Khan, Minnie Riperton and Diana Ross. Blue Island is her answer, and the critics hear it differently.
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Rolling Stone is the warmer of the two, calling the record especially ambitious and expansive and saying she sounds at home across every style. Pitchfork likes the production but finds her writing still overly self-conscious. Its verdict on the song-by-song mix: “Whatever genre she's toying with is irrelevant: It's a good Ravyn Lenae song.”
The song to hear first
The track getting the most attention is “Potential.” The FADER describes crystalline guitar and a breathy, almost drumless first two minutes, and then something “quite shocking”: a metal scrape that lurches the song into Dariacore cacophony and Jersey-club drums, while a warm piano progression keeps going underneath. Hear the visualizer below.
Why it matters
Blue Island is the follow-up that decides whether “Love Me Not” was a moment or a start. Rolling Stone likens the album to Olivia Dean's The Art of Loving, a record that shares its interest in how people treat each other in love. “Never Let Me Go” ends with a phone call to her grandfather, whom she greets as Papo; he asks if her last two albums are selling. “Well, this last one doin' really well,” he says.
Blue Island is also one of our best new music of August picks. What's next: whether the next single comes from the pop side of the record or the Dariacore-curious one. Rolling Stone's review ends on the point that she is an obvious leader in pop, R&B and “alt-anything,” whatever she lays claim to.
- Album
- Blue Island, 14 tracks
- Out
- Friday, Aug. 7, 2026
- Producer
- DJ Dahi, with Ely Rise and Flanafi
- Guests
- Doechii, Dominic Fike
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
