Hopefully!
2025 studio album by Loyle Carner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hopefully! (stylised as hopefully !) is the fourth studio album by English hip-hop artist Loyle Carner. It was released on 20 June 2025 through Virgin EMI Records and features guest appearances from Navy Blue and Nick Hakim.
| Hopefully! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 20 June 2025 | |||
| Genre | Hip-hop | |||
| Length | 37:44 | |||
| Label | Virgin EMI | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Loyle Carner chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Hopefully! | ||||
| ||||
Background
Hopefully! comes after Loyle Carner's critically acclaimed 2022 album, Hugo. On 9 April 2025, Loyle Carner released the double single "All I Need / In My Mind".[1] On 23 April, he announced the album's title and release date.[2] The following day, he announced a world tour in support of the album.[3]
On 6 May 2025, Loyle Carner released another double single, "About Time / Lyin".[4] The self-directed music video for "Lyin" was released on 20 May 2025.[5] In an interview with Billboard, Loyle Carner discussed how becoming a father of two has shaped his creative process and influenced the themes of fatherhood and personal growth on Hopefully!.[6]
The final single, "Time to Go", was released on 16 June 2025.[7] That same day, the tracklist of the album was revealed.
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.8/10[8] |
| Metacritic | 83/100[9] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [10] |
| Clash | 8/10[11] |
| DIY | [12] |
| The Guardian | [13] |
| NME | [14] |
| The Line of Best Fit | 8/10[15] |
Upon release, Hopefully! was met with widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 9 critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[9]
Peter Martin of DIY called the album "as moving as it is musically satisfying".[12] Writing in The Guardian, Rachel Aroesti described Carner's songwriting as "magical", and said Hopefully! is his "most impressive work to date".[13] Liberty Dunworth of NME wrote that on the album Loyle Carner "broadens his horizons", and that "this isn't just Loyle Carner at his most refined, it is the start of a new chapter".[14] Aimee Phillips of Clash commented that "while 'hopefully!' is thematically rich, it’s not adventurous sonically" and that it "isn't trying to be groundbreaking. It's trying to be honest".[11] Reviewing the album for The Line of Best Fit, Riley Moquin wrote that "vocally, the rapper pushes his boundaries more than perhaps ever before".[15]
Commercial performance
In its first charting week, Hopefully! opened at number-two on the UK Albums Chart with sales of 17,245, marking it his highest-charting album in the country.[16][17]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Feel at Home" |
|
| 2:34 |
| 2. | "In My Mind" |
|
| 4:09 |
| 3. | "All I Need" |
|
| 3:33 |
| 4. | "Lyin" |
|
| 3:58 |
| 5. | "Time to Go" |
|
| 3:29 |
| 6. | "Horcrux" |
|
| 3:30 |
| 7. | "Strangers" |
|
| 2:35 |
| 8. | "Hopefully !" (with Benjamin Zephaniah) |
|
| 2:51 |
| 9. | "Purpose" (with Navy Blue) |
|
| 3:17 |
| 10. | "Don't Fix It" (with Nick Hakim) |
|
| 4:24 |
| 11. | "About Time" |
|
| 3:18 |
| Total length: | 37:44 | |||
Notes
- ^[a] signifies an additional producer.
- All track titles are stylised in all lowercase.[18]
- "Hopefully !" samples a clip of Benjamin Zephaniah's speech on the Brixton riots.[6]
Personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.[19]
Musicians
- Loyle Carner – vocals
- Aviram Barath – synthesizer (tracks 1–8, 10, 11), piano (1–3, 5, 8), background vocals (2), drum machine (3, 6), vocals (3, 11); bass guitar, glockenspiel (7); Mellotron (10), guitar (11)
- Calum Duncan – guitar (1, 3), bass guitar (1)
- Zach Nahome – programming (1), guitar (7)
- Harvey Grant – sampler (2, 8), background vocals (2), synthesizer (3–8, 11), vocals (6), guitar (7), saxophone (8)
- Richard Spaven – drums (2–6, 11), background vocals (2)
- Finn Carter – background vocals, Rhodes (2); synthesizer (5), piano (6, 11)
- Mark Mollison – guitar (2, 3, 5), background vocals (2)
- Joe MacLaren – bass guitar (2, 5, 6), background vocals (2)
- Nick Mills – guitar (3, 4, 7, 8, 11), Rhodes (3), background vocals (8), synthesizer (10)
- Marla Kether – bass guitar (3, 4)
- Imraan Peleker – guitar (3, 4)
- Rosie Lowe – background vocals (4, 9), vocals (6, 11)
- Puma Blue – background vocals (5)
- Benjamin Zephaniah – spoken word (8)
- Navy Blue – vocals (9)
- Nick Hakim – guitar, Mellotron, vocals (10)
- Yves Fernandez – bass guitar (11)
Technical
- Lexxx – mixing
- Nick Mills – mixing (1, 4–11), engineering (all tracks)
- Matt Colton – mastering
- Neil Goody – engineering (3), engineering assistance (1, 2, 6–9, 11)
- Dan Cox – engineering (3–5), engineering assistance (6–9, 11)
- Aviram Barath – engineering (10)
- Ary Maudit – engineering assistance (6)
- Liam Weiland – engineering assistance (7, 8)
- Katie Foreman – engineering assistance (7)
- Jack Manning – engineering assistance (10)
Charts
| Chart (2025) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[20] | 43 |
| Australian Hip Hop/R&B Albums (ARIA)[21] | 7 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[22] | 5 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[23] | 150 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[24] | 13 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[25] | 17 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[26] | 52 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[27] | 29 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[28] | 4 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[29] | 31 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[30] | 2 |
| UK R&B Albums (OCC)[31] | 1 |