Ben Loyle Carner Blurs Reality Lines in 'Lyin' Music Video

Loyle Carner has premiered a brand new music video for ‘lyin’. Starring and directed by Loyle himself, ‘lyin’ is an affecting musical and visual centrepiece of Loyle’s hugely-anticipated new album hopefully !, which will see a release on June 20th on Island EMI. He recently announced hopefully ! a world tour by Loyle Carner, with an extensive run of shows selling out immediately - including a four night residency at O2 Academy Brixton - and further dates added owing to phenomenal demand.

Poignant and surreal, the ‘lyin’ video blurs the line between dreams and reality, your inner child and the grown-up self still figuring things out. The track’s tender twist of lullaby acoustics and hushed rap is visually transported through ambitious scenes shot on location in Latvia, spanning bedtime, play and performance. Produced by Spindle, it’s Loyle Carner’s second self-directed video to follow the one-shot, coming-of-age piece ‘Yesterday’, and teases the visual world of hopefully ! still to come…

Sunlight streaming through the window, hopefully ! is Loyle Carner as you’ve never seen or heard him before. A life-affirming exploration of fatherhood, childhood and alternative music, the album is buoyed by a positivity and lightness of touch achieved in large part by stepping out of your comfort zone. In a series of firsts - singing, producing, accidentally forming the band of his dreams - Loyle Carner cultivates healthier boundaries (‘all i need’) whilst also allowing his audience in (‘in my mind’). The ‘lyin’ video follows hot on the heels of the album’s second single, ‘about time’, its loose, soulful flow ruminating on what you let go of, and what you carry with you, out of adolescence. And although universal in spirit, hopefully ! is richly open in personal detail, right down to its suitably-imperfect artwork (coloured in by his son, who features throughout the record, after Loyle left some photos within arm’s reach).

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, campaigns with global brands (YSL, New Balance, Nike) 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.

It’s a new era in which Loyle Carner continues to push the boundaries of his art, and himself: a passionate advocate around his experiences of dyslexia and ADHD - notably founding the Chilli Con Carner cookery workshops - last year he received an honourary doctorate from UAL in recognition of his powerful rise thus far. He was also recently confirmed to make his acting debut in Mint, a BBC drama from BAFTA-nominated Scrapper director Charlotte Regan, with further exciting visual projects to follow the ‘lyin’ video. Singer; rapper; poet; writer. hopefully ! proves Loyle Carner is all of these and more. Now a decade in, his impact has never been clearer: the same local hero, now rightly regarded as one of the UK’s most vital voices.