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\n\tWhat more is there to say about love? It has been painstakingly dissected and enshrined for centuries in the written word, films, and songs that both shatter and mend hearts. Olivia Dean says it herself on \u201cI\u2019ve Seen It,\u201d the closing track from her second studio album, The Art of Loving.<\/em> The British singer-songwriter witnessed love shape-shift across those mediums, but also watched as it took the form of her parents\u2019 standard-setting romance, young couples finding each other and growing apart, and older ones losing memories to time. \u201cIt makes me cry to think that I am able to give it back the way it gives to me,\u201d Dean sings, while birds chirp in the distance. \u201cThe more you look, the more you find. It\u2019s all around you, all the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAnd yet, despite its pervasiveness, no one has quite nailed down the science behind falling in and out of love, whether romantically, platonically, or internally. At 26, Dean doesn\u2019t purport to have mastered the art of loving. In fact, she\u2019d be the first to admit that most of her findings have been inconclusive, or flat-out wrong. But she is having a damn good time trying.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOn \u201cNice to Each Other,\u201d lush harmonies cushion the blow of her call to keep things casual. \u201cI\u2019ve done all the classic stuff and it never works, you know it,\u201d Dean sings, noting later, \u201cI don\u2019t want a boyfriend.\u201d Its steady percussive kick is occasionally interrupted by eccentric warbles and vocal stabs that are as fleeting as the romantic arrangement she\u2019s suggesting on the record. She leans further into this flirty persuasion on \u201cSo Easy to Fall in Love,\u201d singing, \u201cI\u2019m the perfect mix of Saturday night and the rest of your life.\u201d The saccharine jazz pop standout calls to mind the glamour of Diana Ross. Elsewhere, her impenetrable confidence makes an undeniable hit out of \u201cMan I Need,\u201d where she quips, \u201cI kinda like it when you call me wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDean\u2019s star power is radiant and fueled by more than just charisma. She grooves in perfect time with an expertly assembled band, navigating through blaring trumpets, trombones, and saxophones with a delicate attention to detail and synchronicity. Their arrangements linger for a while on the bluesy \u201cClose Up\u201d as she ruminates on mixed signals, while \u201cBaby Steps\u201d studies every page of the Motown playbook and \u201cA Couple Minutes\u201d aches to be a duet. These records start to make sense of why Dean wants to keep her distance, romanticize the weekends, and rebuild her walls when the party is over. She won\u2019t put her heart on the line again until she\u2019s sure it\u2019s in safe hands.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tThe Art of Loving<\/em> finds its strength in these pockets of restraint where Dean\u2019s more melancholic moments put down roots, like in the swelling strings of the intimate and haunting \u201cLoud.\u201d She digs deepest on \u201cLet Alone the One You Love,\u201d a career high point that could stand alongside classics from Amy Winehouse and Adele, even Beyonc\u00e9 back when she still made R&B ballads. Dean reached for those heights with her 2023 debut, Messy,<\/em> which included the breakout hits \u201cDive\u201d and \u201cThe Hardest Part,\u201d though she got closest with the one-off \u201cWhat Am I Gonna Do on Sundays?\u201d Regardless, The Art of Loving<\/em> pushes Dean into an elevated tier.<\/p>\n \n\tIt matches the height of the standards she holds herself to. \u201cIs it thinking too high of myself to not wannat to be sad?\u201d she asks on \u201cSomething in InBetween,\u201d breaking away from stagnant constraints. \u201cLove needs breathing\/I\u2019m not his, I\u2019m not hers, I\u2019m not your all or nothing s.\u201d Her introspection continues on \u201cLady Lady,\u201d where the sentiment of unexpected change is mirrored by sharp melodic shifts. The jazzy outro of the song plays like the final scene of a film where heartbreak doesn\u2019t triumph, but neither does happily ever after. Dean is still figuring out love. \u201cSomething lost and something gained in the art of loving,\u201d she sings on the title track. Maybe it has all been said before. But not by her. That makes all the difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What more is there to say about love? It has been painstakingly dissected and enshrined for centuries in the written word, films, and songs that both shatter and mend hearts. Olivia Dean says it herself on \u201cI\u2019ve Seen It,\u201d the closing track from her second studio album, The Art of Loving. The British singer-songwriter witnessed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3153,3423,929,2321,1085],"class_list":{"0":"post-24030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-dean","10":"tag-loving","11":"tag-olivia","12":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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