The Art of Loving — How Olivia Dean Captures The Art of Modern Relationships
By Arya Desai
This past week, British singer Olivia Dean released her highly anticipated sophomore album, The Art of Loving, which has quickly climbed charts to become the UK’s Number 1 album for the first week of October (OfficialCharts.com). At just 26, she is the first UK female solo artist to achieve record sales on an album’s opening since Adele in 2021.
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The album’s success comes as no surprise for those who have noticed the singer’s growing popularity online over the summer. Her singles from The Art of Loving: “Nice to Each Other" and “Man I Need” have been used as sounds in 158K and 798.6K TikTok videos, respectively.
Olivia’s songs can also be heard in Hollywood as well, with her most recent feature on the Bridget Jones Diary: Mad About the Boy soundtrack: “It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be.”
This isn’t Dean’s first rodeo; she has released several singles, an album, and multiple collaborations with other artists in the past. So what is it about Dean’s recent work that has set her on the path to becoming a household name in Pop jazz, especially with younger generations?
Look no further than the recent interview Dean did with Elle Magazine, where she shares her inspiration for the newest album and its connection to the Bell Hooks book All About Love: “I was reading the bit where she was talking about if we had a love module in school—love is the thing that we’re all seeking, but somehow we still treat it as this mystery, taboo, fantastical thing…”
Indeed, the newest generation of young adults and teenagers seems to echo Dean’s feelings, frequently commenting on social media about the lack of vulnerability and intimacy in relationships today.
Between the flurry of new dating apps, strict internet dating advice, and overall decline of in-person interactions, it is no wonder that “Love” is more mysterious than ever.
The Art of Loving challenges this. Dean pulls the curtains back and embarks on a journey of redefining what love and intimacy look like in today’s world.
“It really forced me to look at it more seriously,” Dean explains (Elle Magazine).
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“How can you get close to someone you keep out of reach?” - Close Up
A major theme in The Art of Loving is the simple but all-too-familiar issue of vulnerability and communication when it comes to matters of the heart.
From the album’s cheekier lyrics in upbeat songs like “Close Up,” to the exposed chords of ballads like “Loud,” Dean can be heard lamenting about the difficulties of getting her lover to open up about their true feelings.
However, she isn’t afraid to hold up the mirror to her own struggles with intimacy: “It's too much to belong to anyone/ too scared to be changed,” Dean admits in “Something In Between.”
This is something Zaid Hassan, a fan of Dean’s, particularly appreciates: “I honestly loved her authenticity within her lyrics. She talks about being vulnerable, honest, and unsure of herself.”
Alex Richard, another fan, shares this sentiment: “I think ‘Close Up’ is my favorite song…A lot of the time it feels like we’re in a gray area and there’s never a definite answer…it feels like a constant guessing game if someone is into us or not,” going on to add, “I think this song really taps into that unsure feeling that a lot of people in this generation feel when dating.”
Dean knows that vulnerability is easier said than done. The Art of Loving acknowledges that opening up takes time and work, and so does love.
Speaking on how All About Love inspired her album, she explains, “I guess the whole premise of [All About Love] is thinking about love as less of this fantasy that’s going to happen to you one day and more of a practice and a craft” (Elle).
This practice and craft is something Dean writes about in her song, “Baby Steps,” singing, “Right, left/ For now I’m taking/ baby steps.”
“I love the song because it really exemplifies how a relationship should look,” Zaid comments, adding, “people love to rush and find the ‘red flags’ or reasons for incompatibility when I feel like people are so much more complex than that. ‘Baby steps’ really talks about taking your time with someone and getting to know them deeply.”
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“Of course I still care” - A Couple of Minutes
Perhaps one of the most attractive parts about The Art of Loving is its many love songs. Between Dean’s more heartfelt ballads are several feel-good anthems about the butterflies that come with a budding romantic connection. In other words, a celebration of the art of falling,
“I could be fresh air, might be the girl of your dreams/ There’s no need to hide if you’re into me,” sings Dean in “So Easy (To Fall In Love),” a flirty love song that carries the listener away with its catchy melody.
Similarly, the anticipation and excitement of puppy love is front and center in her hit single, “Man I Need”: “Already gave you the time and place/ So don’t be shy/ Just come be the man I need,” Dean sings. Between its music video’s romantic visuals and Dean’s buttery vocals, “Man I Need” is a certified crush classic.
“It makes me feel so dancey dancey and it’s such a perfect song to scream, sing, and truly feel the words,” says Morgan Johnson, “I feel like relationships in your twenties are a lot of pressure and she truly captures the idea of ‘wait, woah I’m just existing and enjoying life.’ ”
In a time when nonchalance and stoicism are praised, Dean’s love songs are a breath of fresh air–she isn’t afraid to admit she is head-over-heels with someone.
“What I love about her songs is this sense of unapologetic yearning,” says Jon Beyer, a longtime listener of Dean’s music.
“The romantic yearning in her music almost makes me wish for the chase, the flirt, the pining. I think in that sense, she almost runs counter to modern dating where it feels gauche at times to be unapologetic about your romantic yearning,” Jon adds, “In a landscape that somewhat shames the earnest, she makes it seem covetable.”
For those dealing with heartbreak, Dean has several ballads on the album about love turned sour. She doesn’t put up a front or shy away from the heartache of it all.
In “Loud”, Dean strums her guitar and sings about the end of a brief love affair and the confusion that comes with it: “I understand/ If you changed your mind about me/ But all you had to do was say.”
Taking on a more resolved tone in “A Couple Minutes,” Dean reflects on a former relationship, admitting that she will always have a soft spot for that person: “Back on your sofa/ Of course I still care/ Love’s never wasted/ When it’s shared.”
But a failed love is never delivered as a message of defeat in The Art of Loving. There is a lesson to be learned; an experience to cherish.
“She has a very mature way of writing about relationships ending,” Alex comments, “It’s a lot of realization and accepting certain things and being okay with it…it still has an uplifting feel to it.”
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“I guess it’s been inside me all along” - I’ve Seen It
The Art of Loving is more than an essay on romance. Dean celebrates love in its many forms, from platonic relationships to the practice of self-love and respect. In many ways, this is what sets it apart from antiquated notions of partnership
Being single isn’t an automatic sentence of feeling lonely or insufficient. Love can still be celebrated, welcomed, and practiced in an everyday sense: “It’ll be me turning on the lights/ When I come home/ But I’ll manage/ There’ll be roses on the shelf/ ‘Cause this house gon’ love itself,” she sings in “Baby Steps.”
After all, Dean’s inspiration from the title has nothing to do with romantic love at all: “There’s this passage in the book about the craft of loving one’s own life, and I thought, ‘I think I’m gonna call this album The Art of Loving,’” she tells Rolling Stone.
Dean remarks on the beauty of friendships and family in song, “I’ve Seen It,” referencing what are assumedly loved ones of the singer: “I’ve seen it dance with friends around the table/ In Eleanor, Rosie, and Louise.”
In fact, The Art of Loving’s intimate sound makes one almost feel as though they are one of Dean’s own friends: dining at her table, lying around her apartment, or strolling through the City.
Isa Johnson remarks on this phenomenon in her experience listening to Olivia Dean’s album, saying, “It’s hard for me to be drawn to someone’s sound, but Olivia Dean's music felt familiar and safe— like when you see a friend after a long time.”
On a larger scale, Dean’s album references love as a free-flowing force all around us, capable of being touched and seen in ordinary life: “I’ve seen it after school and in the park/ Sat right across me on the tube.”
To categorize love and relationships is a way of limiting and boxing it in. The Art of Loving busts down the doors, revealing that perhaps no one can define the mystery of love, nor write the rule books on how to go about the act of loving. It simply is…so be honest, take a chance, and allow it to transform you.
Dean introduces this in the album’s title song by quoting Bell Hooks herself: “Gotta throw some paint/ something lost and gained/ In the art of loving.”
