With his new album, hugo, Loyle Carner confronts both the deeply personal and the highly political.
Cinematic in scale and scope, hugo is both a rallying war cry for a generation forged in fire and a study of the personal internal conflict that drives the rest of the album – as a mixed-race Black man, as an artist, as a father and as a son.
With Mercury and Brits nominations, NME Awards and appearances in global brand campaigns (Nike, YSL, Timberland), Carner has undoubtedly had a meteoric rise to the top, culminating with his second album Not Waving, But Drowning charting at number three in the UK albums chart in 2019. However, hugo sees Carner taking a sharp detour from his previous work, putting it down to lockdown and the “hedonistic side of career being stripped away. There were no shows, no backstage, no festivals, no photoshoots”. By continuing to write in these tumultuous times with a renewed clarity and sense of artistic freedom, Carner reached deeper beneath the surface than he ever had before.
And now, following a string of warmly received festival appearances over the summer, Carner is getting ready to take hugo on the road next year. With massive stadium shows across the UK, kicking off with Dublin in February and culminating with Wembley OVO Arena in London, Carner will surely be taking live stages by storm with his electrifying new material.
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