She gives snippets of the thoughts and feelings behind each song as she performs, with each bit of poignant dialogue bookended by the soulful vocals and free flowing compositions of her back catalogue.
The chapter she is referring to being the first in her story – 3 years since she started putting music out in the London scene. As a writer it’s a journey I have seen at its start, and at its end, from her first festival performance at St Laurence’s church in Norwich for Wild Paths Festival 2021, to her first sold out show at The Elgar Room at The Royal Albert Hall in 2024.
The Elgar Room has a natural warmth and intimacy, like that of an art-deco cinema with its grand nature and warm-dim lighting.
Tonight’s show, she explains, is a display of ‘Raelle then, now and what she’ll become’, adding this could be the final outings for some of her earliest tracks, to well and truly move into a new chapter in her artistry.
She opened with a cover of SWV’s ‘Rain’ before venturing into one of her earliest singles, the 2021 release ‘Purple Skies’, a track that, in its stripped back design, beautifully highlights Raelle’s vocal abilities, closing with some angelic harmonies.
She continued to move effortlessly through her entire artistic evolution, ticking off the 2022 single ‘Grace’ which is a personal favourite with swooning strings and Raelle’s mesmerizing vocal control gripping attention from the candlelit circular tables and the rows of us standing to the back with our heads swaying.
Raelle and her band oozed a laid-back confidence and chemistry, which was clear to see and hear. Together they were a 10-piece band but Raelle said they felt more like a family.
With so many musicians on stage at the same time, the set had a real free-flowing, jam-style feel, bouncing between slick solos on their respective instruments to punctuate Raelle’s soulful orchestral singles.
She continued through to her latest single ‘Stolen’ featuring S.fidelity, Collard and Gabiga, a slick and soulful tune birthed from a group improv session in France. It’s a track that has had an overwhelmingly positive reception, racking up over 300,000 Spotify streams and becoming Raelle’s most popular song. It will likely be the first of a few collaborations we will be seeing from her over the coming months!
In an interview after the show Raelle said that one of her biggest developments as a live performer was her desire to pull the listener into the song; to understand the intentions and messages in the lyrics and the headspace from which is written. This was definitely evident on this occasion, as she would give snippets about the next track’s inception after the close of the previous one. The level of intimacy and honesty to her interactions, in a venue that was already so warm felt like being reunited with an old friend, discussing the ‘remember when’s’ and ‘I can’ wait to’s…’ of life.
The set closed with Raelle’s personal favourite song ‘Round Round’ which signified the end of her first musical chapter, with her second waiting eagerly to begin. She is working on some new singles with some exciting collaborators, and hopes to release a new project next year.