Loyle Carner has today released brand new album hopefully !, which is available now on Island EMI. Featuring latest focus track ‘time to go’, hopefully ! is a landmark record from the groundbreaking British artist you thought you knew. The record receives its live debut this weekend with two intimate homecoming shows at Hackney Church (June 20th, 21st), ahead of Carner’s headline set at Glastonbury’s Other Stage and a huge world tour to follow later this year. Further dates have been added owing to phenomenal demand, including an instantly-sold out four night residency at O2 Academy Brixton in November. 

Sunlight streaming through the window, hopefully ! is Loyle Carner’s life-affirming exploration of childhood, fatherhood, and alternative music. In a series of firsts – singing, producing, accidentally forming the band of his dreams – the UK rapper cultivates healthier boundaries (‘all i need’) whilst reflecting on the journey out of adolescence (‘about time’). The album’s cinematic, self-directed visual centrepiece – ‘lyin’ – brings to life a project which creates space, but, like its hand-picked guests, also speaks volumes about the artist and man Loyle Carner actually is in 2025; hopefully ! features contributors like Navy Blue, Nick Hakim, and even Carner’s late mentor Benjamin Zephaniah, who can be heard speaking on the Brixton riots. 

A call for hope – if you know where to look for it – Loyle Carner’s new album is universal in theme, but richly open in personal detail. It’s there right down to its suitably-imperfect artwork, which was coloured in by his son (who features throughout the record) after he left some photos within arm’s reach. hopefully ! also articulates a period of growth in which Loyle Carner has, in his characteristically-unassuming way, earned rare status in British culture: this year alone, Loyle fronts a new campaign for Burberry alongside the likes of Liam Gallagher, whilst also filming his acting debut in an upcoming BBC drama, MINT, from Scrapper director Charlotte Regan. 

A musician, writer, director, producer, entrepreneur and actor, Loyle Carner first emerged with 2013’s A Little Late EP, and has since forged a signature blend of unflinching, diaristic lyricism with ambitious, genre-disruptive sounds. His debut album, 2017’s Yesterday’s Gone, untangled personal experiences of grief; 2019 follow-up, Not Waving, but Drowning, further showcased Loyle’s ability to set hip-hop against old-soul wisdom. A cathartic turning point proved to be 2022’s hugo: a taut, textured exploration of Black identity and anger, which also secured his second Top 3 album. Having been twice shortlisted for the Mercury Prize – and scored further BRIT and NME Award nominations – Carner has earned an impassioned worldwide following, with 1.1B streams, and sold-out shows including Alexandra Palace, Wembley Arena, Eventim Apollo, O2 Academy Brixton and Royal Albert Hall in his beloved London hometown alone.  This journey climaxed in a headline appearance at All Points East’s 35,000 capacity Victoria Park last summer, which hopefully ! emerged in the wake of. A passionate advocate around his experiences of dyslexia and ADHD – notably founding the Chilli Con Carner cookery workshops – last year Loyle received an honourary doctorate from UAL in recognition of his powerful rise thus far.

Singer; rapper; poet; writer…his new album proves that Loyle Carner is all of these, and more. Now a decade in, the local-hero MC has grown into one of the UK’s most vital voices. hope !, in abundance.