[REVIEW] Loyle Carner's ‘Hopefully !’ Is a Warm, Messy, Honest Look at Fatherhood and Change

Loyle Carner opens his fourth album with two words: "beautiful accidents." It’s a small phrase that quietly captures everything this record is about.

Nearly three years on from hugo, Carner returns with hopefully !, a project that doesn’t just mark a new chapter; it shows he’s rewritten the book entirely. The first thing you hear on Loyle Carner’s new album is the sound of his young son playing a xylophone. It’s a small, almost throwaway moment. But it sets the tone for what follows - an album made from the ground up with family in mind.

‘hopefully !’ is Carner's fourth album, and probably his most personal. It’s less tidy than ‘hugo’, less direct than ‘Not Waving, But Drowning’, and less nostalgic than ‘Yesterday’s Gone’. But it’s also warmer, more open, and more human.

The opening line, “beautiful accidents", says a lot. That phrase carries through the album, not just in lyrics, but in form. A lot of what happens here feels unintended in the best way. Carner sings more, and it doesn’t always land perfectly. The mix is loose in places, the vocals sometimes fragile. But that’s the point. ‘hopefully !’ is less interested in perfection and more interested in feeling.

Take ‘lyin’ and ‘strangers’. These are two of the most moving tracks on the record, and not because they’re technically polished. They work because Carner lets himself sound uncertain. There’s vulnerability in how he sings, untrained, almost awkward, and it brings you closer. You’re not hearing a studio-perfect vocal take; you’re hearing a dad trying to keep it together.

That sense of immediacy shows up again in the album’s structure. A lot of tracks bleed into each other or collapse into fragments. ‘Feel At Home’ moves from jungle to jazz, while ‘in my mind’ rides a slurred, sleepy beat. Carner borrows from multiple genres: jungle, lo-fi hip-hop, and acoustic soul, but doesn’t cling to any of them. There’s no attempt to polish the edges. If ‘hugo’ was Carner asserting control, this is him letting go.

That’s not to say it’s messy for the sake of it. Every track has intention, even if it’s not spelt out. ‘Purpose’, featuring Navy Blue, is quietly one of the best tracks he’s ever made. Both artists reflect on what keeps them going: kids, love, pain, the dull, repetitive fight of staying soft in a hard world. It's understated but effective. They’re not trying to prove anything, just processing out loud.

Same goes for ‘Don’t Fix It’, which features Nick Hakim and sounds like it was recorded in a half-dream. Carner's voice fades in and out, almost like he’s trying to disappear inside the song. Hakim’s ghostly vocal washes over everything, and the result is this gentle tug between presence and absence. It's one of many tracks on the album that sound like they could fall apart at any moment, but that fragility is what gives it power.

The title track, ‘hopefully’, features a posthumous recording of Benjamin Zephaniah. It’s not just a tribute; it’s a grounding force. Zephaniah’s voice comes in like a reminder of struggle, of context, of the need to stay awake in a world that tries to dull you. It’s heavy, but not overbearing. Carner doesn't lean into protest here the way he did on ‘hugo’. Instead, he filters those same thoughts through the lens of a father trying to keep it together for his kid.

Fatherhood is the thread that runs through everything. It’s not romanticised, though. It’s told in messy detail, the sleep deprivation, the joy, the fear. He doesn’t frame himself as a perfect dad or even a particularly confident one. On tracks like ‘About Time’, you hear his son’s voice babbling in the background, and the effect is disarming. It’s not dramatic or sentimental. It’s just... real. A moment captured.

Elsewhere, Carner lets the instrumentation do some of the emotional heavy lifting. There’s a live band feel across the album that gives it a warmth his previous work didn’t quite have. The production is less sampled, more organic. Keys, brushed drums, light guitar strums. There’s texture, but no clutter. It sounds like a record made in a room with other people, which fits. He’s not trying to escape his life here, he’s deep in it.

‘Horcrux’ is one of the more tightly wound moments. The verses are dense, the flow more traditional. Carner raps about the distance that touring puts between him and his family, and the resentment that builds in that space. It’s not self-pitying. Just honest. That tension - between gratitude and guilt - sits at the core of a lot of the album. How do you stay present when your job pulls you away? How do you raise someone while still trying to grow yourself?

In that way, ‘hopefully !’ isn’t really about answers. It’s about living with the questions. And while that sounds like a cliché, Carner manages to avoid the typical tropes. He’s not out here saying fatherhood changed him completely or that he’s now a man with all the wisdom. He’s just showing up, flaws and all. Sometimes singing when he shouldn’t, sometimes rapping when he’s tired, sometimes doing both in the same breath.

It would be easy to describe this album as a return to softness, especially after the sharp edges of ‘hugo’. But that oversimplifies things. It’s more accurate to say that ‘hopefully !’ expands the emotional register. He hasn’t dulled the anger; he’s just learned to hold it alongside other feelings. There’s grief here, and worry, and joy, and boredom. It’s complex, but not in a heady way. It’s complex in the way real life is.

What makes ‘hopefully !’ stand out is how low-stakes it feels without losing meaning. There are no big declarations, no huge hooks designed for radio. It sounds like an album made quietly, with care, in between nappy changes and long walks. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, that’s what makes it good.

The final track, ‘About Time’, ends as the album began, with the sound of his child. There are no lyrics, just a few gentle chords and the background noise of life happening. It’s a perfect ending. No resolution, no big crescendo. Just a reminder that the most important things often happen off-mic.

With ‘hopefully !’, Carner doesn’t try to summarise where he’s at. He just shares it. And that’s what makes it such a rewarding listen. You don’t need to be a parent to feel it. You just need to be someone who’s ever tried to grow while the world keeps spinning.

★★★★