Review: DAVE – “The Boy Who Played The Harp”

I've always had a predilection for rappers made in the UK. They have a grammar all their own — a barre aesthetic, as lyrical as it is musical.

And if you add talent, vision and urgency to this code, you get to the top.

This is the case with Dave. “The Boy Who Played the Harp”the British rapper's third album, is a work that doesn't try to please, but to tell.
The work of an artist who, after having redefined the narrative of English rap with Psychodrama And We're All Alone In This Togetherseems to finally accept his own vulnerability as sound material.

The almost fable-like title suggests a parable: that of a boy who learned to play the harp instead of brandishing a weapon, finding in music an act of emotional resistance. In these ten tracks, Dave doesn't just observe the world: he affects it with surgical precision, alternating confession and social conscience.

Collaborations are precious but never intrusive. Tems, with its spiritual afrobeat, adds a touch of romance into Raindance; No Weaponsfeaturing Nigerian-British Jim Legxacy, is a rare moment of rhythmic relief. Grime legend Kano brings weight and memory to Chapter 16while James Blake reemerges as an echo of the soul in History And Selfishwhere his voice intertwines with the gravity of Dave's with an almost otherworldly grace. Everything sounds calibrated, intimate, almost sacred.

As a producer, Dave confirms himself as an architect of sound: he builds beats that breathe, layers pianos, synths and percussion with a rare, almost jazzy sensitivity. My 27th Birthday closes the circle, carrying on his personal saga with clarity and disenchantment – a self-portrait of a man who grows, falls and rises again.

“The Boy Who Played the Harp” it's heavier and quieter than anything Dave has ever done. There's still bravado, but it comes across as a defense mechanism rather than a statement of intent.

The writing remains sharp and resolute, albeit with some moments of vanity or filler; but the peaks here are among the highest of his career.

A training album in the deepest sense: the story of those who understood that strength is not noise, but controlled silence. And in that silence, Dave continues to be the most necessary and restless voice in British rap.

SCORE: 7.75

TO LISTEN NOW

Chapter 16 (ft. Kano) – Raindance (ft. Tems) – Selfish (ft. James Blake)

TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY

Once again nothing. A compendium of the state of rap made in the UK!