The New album by Olivia Dean
There are albums you listen to.
And then there are albums that arrive exactly when you need them.
Album of the Year by Olivia Dean
What a perfect timing for Olivia Dean to release the best album of the year.
Olivia Dean: A True Soul
Trained at the BRIT School, the same school as Lola Young and Amy Winehouse, a school that favors authenticity, which pushes Olivia Dean to be the interpreter of her own lyrics.
Fun fact: she even sang at her teacher’s wedding.
“Music comes from the heart.”
She doesn’t do it for the fame, she just does it because she loves making music so much. She did some gigs with no-one showing up in Soho, but she still enjoyed the moment and felt lucky to do it. So for her, it doesn’t matter how many people come to her gigs or concerts because she still enjoys it. It is the same for the album: it doesn’t matter if people don’t like it because she enjoyed making it.
And today she gets support from a lot of celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Elton John.
She feels really good at trusting her intuition, she trusted herself and that’s what brought her here.
The Art of Loving
The album is about exploring the fame of love. It is based on her true story. She shows Prince as an inspiration, with an 80’s influence.
Two years after Messy( 2023), which celebrated the charming chaos of her twenties, Olivia arrives at the end of 2025 transformed. She doesn’t feel messy anymore: she has done so much work on herself.
On The Art of Loving, there are no features.
Not out of ego, but out of coherence.
Because this story is intimate, it’s her personal story.
Because this album is just you and her. Nothing else.
Olivia Dean doesn’t romanticize love. She observes it. She questions it. She tries it. She deconstructs it.
Love here isn’t an end goal, but a living experience:
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The love we think we want,
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The one we accept out of fear,
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The one we learn to leave,
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The one we cultivate alone,
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The one we share with friends, strangers, or a past version of ourselves.
It’s an album that reminds us of something essential:
we are never taught how to love.
And yet, it’s the one thing everyone is searching for.
Track by track — the 12 chapters of The Art of Loving
1. The Art of Loving (Intro)
A soft manifesto.
Loving without regret, as long as you stay true to yourself.
2. Nice To Each Other
Love without promises.
Just the joy of being there, without labels.
Hopeless romantic energy — unapologetically.
3. Lady Lady
Growing through discomfort.
Trusting the universe.
Becoming the version of yourself you once imagined.
4. Close Up
The moment clarity hits.
When love starts to feel more like insecurity than connection.
5. So Easy (To Fall In Love)
The crush.
The butterflies.
That quiet certainty: if I can love this about myself, how could you not love me?
6. Let Alone The One You Love
Friendship wounds.
The moment you realise you made yourself smaller so someone else could grow.
And the line that lingers:
You’re never too much for the people who truly love you.
7. Man I Need
Clarity.
Saying what you want out loud.
And if no one shows up:
becoming your own safe place.
8. Something In Between
Falling in love while finding yourself.
Loving before being fully healed.
And understanding that it’s okay.
9. Loud
Choosing solitude over a presence that makes you feel alone.
A powerful, almost cathartic vocal moment.
10. Baby Steps
Healing isn’t linear.
Every step matters.
Self-love starts gently.
11. A Couple Minutes
Memories that surface without warning.
Proof that love was never wasted.
We’re a mosaic of the people we love.
12. I’ve Seen It
The perfect ending.
A simple reminder:
love is everywhere.
In friends, flowers, books, the ocean, everyday life.
You just have to look.
A conscious joy album
What stands out is that The Art of Loving isn’t a sad album.
It’s lucid, but joyful.
Healed, without being naïve.
Olivia Dean doesn’t deny the wounds.
She integrates them.
She transforms them.
She chose joy.
And you can feel that choice in every note.
The Final Word
At the end, this album makes her feel pride, healed, ready to share with people and happy. It’s a good time in her life.
“If you work really hard anything can happen in your life. Keep working towards your goals and working towards it because you love it for the right reason, you never know what could happen.”- Olivia Dean
The final song, I’ve Seen It, leaves the listener on a note reminding them that perhaps romantic love isn’t far away from your life right now, but love exists in so many forms: it is in your friendships, it is in strangers, it is in your parents. There is so much love to be shared in the world right now. We need reminding that it is all around us and you just need to look for it.
It’s an album about real love.
The kind that takes many forms.
The kind that doesn’t always hurt.
The kind that often begins with yourself.
And maybe that’s why it resonates so deeply.
Because it promises nothing.
It simply reminds us that love is already there.
Sometimes quiet.
Sometimes unexpected.
But always present — if you’re willing to see it.
Album of the year. No hesitation.