Born in New Zealand but primarily raised in Australia, Jordan Rakei eventually moved to Great Britain to make a name for himself as a singer-songwriter. He has done just that, releasing a string of albums that reflect a broad range of musical influences. Rakei’s latest, The Loop, is a musically and lyrically complex work reflecting his journey from childhood through marriage and fatherhood. Rakei has been creating intriguing music since his debut, Cloak, in 2016, but The Loop is his most personal work. As such, The Loop isn’t immediately accessible as a whole, but it beautifully reveals itself and Rakei’s story over repeated listens.
A series of evocative pop songs with a distinctly soulful influence, The Loop opens with the quietly propulsive “Flowers”, a song of romantic redemption. Throughout the tracks that follow—many with titles as minimalistic as “Flowers”—Rakei meditates on weighty topics like love, marriage, parenthood, and death. There’s not much waving one’s hands in the air like they don’t care on The Loop.
On the second track, Jordan Rakei joins a full spectrum of artists, from Richie Havens to Beyoncé to Paul McCartney to George Michael, who have offered their reflections on “Freedom”. Rakei ultimately notes, “Freedom calls your bluff / If you understand that.” With an insistent melody of gospel-style backing vocals, “Freedom” is as close to anthemic as The Loop gets.
“Friend or Foe” is a cautionary tale about mortality and forgiveness, convincingly conveyed via an orchestral arrangement that, like much of The Loop, might recall Marvin Gaye‘s masterpiece, What’s Going On. Other musical touchstones emerge while listening. “Learning” is a slow-building soul-inflected tune that evokes Steve Wonder‘s “Another Star” and “As” from Songs in the Key of Life, even though “Learning” doesn’t specifically sound like either of those songs.
Similarly, “State of Mind” feels a bit like Sade, though you might not catch that feeling until you’ve heard the song a few times. While these results might vary – I might be sensing Sade, you might be feeling D’Angelo or Terence Trent D’arby – none of this is to suggest that Jordan Rakei is being overly derivative. Instead, he emerges as a songwriter and performer who has deeply absorbed much of the best music made over the last 50 years and is now discovering how much it inspires his work.
Much of The Loop leans toward the quiet and introspective, but it’s not without its livelier moments. “Trust”, “Friend or Foe”, and “Cages” all qualify as upbeat toe-tappers. While nearly every song on The Loop features some degree of orchestral touches and backing vocals, the unifying element throughout is Jordan Rakei’s distinctive voice, which glides beautifully through each song’s varied settings.
Rakei closes with “A Little Life”, which summarizes his journey from dark childhood memories to life in a brighter present. There is some melancholy in the music and the memories, but in “A Little Life”, Rakei has found a peaceful place to land, The Loop.
Listening to The Loop beginning-to-end, it feels like Rakei front-loaded the record with its more accessible, hummable tunes, saving the most heavily orchestrated and lyrically abstract tunes for the second half. That means The Loop requires some patient listening throughout its hour-long running time. Ultimately, though, The Loop emerges as a worthwhile musical journey in which Jordan Rakei reveals some of the universal truths he has unearthed in his own ongoing life story.