As Dave notes, a few minutes into his third album, he’s been conspicuous by his absence for “a couple summers”. Four years separate The Boy Who Played the Harp from his last solo album, the platinum-selling We’re All Alone in This Together. Perhaps more strikingly, it’s been two years since he released Split Decision, the collaborative EP with Central Cee that spawned Sprinter: not just the longest-running UK rap No 1 in history, but the track that finally did the thing that it seemed increasingly unlikely a UK rap track would ever do and became a hit in the US, selling a million copies and even winding up on Barack Obama’s annual playlist. But rather than attempt to capitalise on its US success, as Central Cee did – jumping on tracks by big names ranging from J Cole to Ice Spice to Jung Kook from BTS; releasing a debut album that was announced on a live NFL broadcast, featured a plethora of American guest stars and ultimately wound up in the US Top 10 – Dave essentially withdrew from music.
It was, by any metric, a counterintuitive move, and anyone wondering why, or what he’s been doing, will find some answers in The Boy Who Played the Harp. It opens with portentous-sounding organ and a couple of verses that do exactly what you might expect an artist in his position to do: reassert his vast success and wealth – he’s “already a legend”, his home apparently comes with a “garden the size of Adam and Eve’s” and “a forest” – but that turns out to be a feint, both musically and lyrically.
