Less than a decade ago, south London rapper Ben Coyle-Larner – known as Loyle Carner – was very much an emerging artist, performing at Caius (2016) and Pembroke’s (2017) May Balls, and on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury (2015). Now, Carner’s success is undeniable: three of his albums have been nominated for the BRIT Awards or Mercury Prize; the tour for his album Hugo sold out Wembley Stadium and the Royal Albert Hall; and this year, Carner returned to Glastonbury – this time, as a headliner.

On June 20, 2025, Carner took to the altar of Hackney Church, an unorthodox gig venue, to debut his fourth album, Hopefully!, released that same day. I often turn to Carner’s music during exam season – his languorous sound, confessional lyrics, and diaristic style are a soothing antidote to stress – so it felt cathartic to take a train home to London to see him perform the songs I’d leaned on just a day after my exams ended.

“Accidents, beautiful accidents”

The headiness of the atmosphere and the venue itself almost made it feel like we were there to worship: the intimate space, the dizzying damp of the British summer air, and reverent lighting.

Carner began his set with three words – “accidents, beautiful accidents” – the opening line of the first track (‘Feel at home’) from his new album. Serendipities are at the core of Carner’s work; when asked about his stage name, Carner explained, “I used to say Loyle Carner by accident because I’m dyslexic… now that I think of it, it was a happy accident.”

‘Feel at home’ felt like a prelude – this soulful, breakbeat-driven track gave Carner a chance to gear up for ‘In my mind’, the second track on the album which he seemed nervous to perform. Carner’s distinctive sound weaves poetic conversational rap over jazz and soul infused beats, but Hopefully! marks a bold shift – for the first time, he sings. Before starting ‘In my mind’, Carner addressed the crowd with a sheepish smile, asking us to sing along as he admitted he was nervous to sing live for the first time. Hopefully!, at its core, is about family and fatherhood, and when Carner was asked by the Rolling Stone about this shift in sound, he warmly described how his decision to include singing resulted from him trying to articulate his love for his children: “But to articulate how I feel about them, I couldn’t put it into words…[it] had to transcend words.”

“Carner’s distinctive sound weaves poetic conversational rap over jazz and soul infused beats”

Getting the nerve-wracking part done – telling the crowd, “Now I can relax” – Carner surprised us by performing ‘Ain’t Nothing Changed’. The instantly recognisable bluesy saxophone riff sample at the start of this song (from Carner’s first album Yesterday’s Gone) marked a tone shift as the mellow vibe was turned upside down by the song’s punchy lyrics and moody beat. As the sun began to set, Carner pulled out ‘Damselfly’, a crowd-pleaser from Yesterday’s Gone, leaving the audience entranced by the artist as he stood bathed in warm light.

Mesmerising is the word I’d use to describe this gig and much of Carner’s music. Usually, not knowing the lyrics to tracks at a gig limits your engagement, but not here. As Carner performed songs from an album released mere hours before the gig, the audience had no choice but to simply listen and absorb his reverie – the spellbinding flow of the lyrics of ‘Horcrux’, ‘Time to go’, ‘Lyin’, and ‘Desoleil’ (a personal favourite) poured from his lips with velvety ease, pulling me – and everyone around – into a trance. Carner closed his set by returning to his beloved back catalogue: against the backdrop of the previous tracks’ softness, ‘Speed of Plight’ felt even more punctuated, injecting a surge of energy that carried through to the end of his set. Carner ended not with a bang, but on a subdued high, rounding off with ‘Still’ and perhaps his most iconic single, ‘Ottolenghi’.

The gig’s flow was never stilted – Carner kept the audience on its toes, dexterously switching between the dreamy languidness of Hopefully! and the harsher production of Hugo. Carner never lost the affection of the crowd, scattering small anecdotes between songs. Before performing ‘About time’, Carner told the crowd how his young son (who he pointed out in the crowd) had been on his shoulders throughout the writing of the song, a tender image that reflects the warmth of Hopefully!. I’ve been a fan of Carner’s music for a few years, but talking to others, I realised just how deep his fans’ devotion runs – each person I spoke to outdoing the last with the number of Carner’s gigs they’d attended: three gigs, four gigs… I even talked to someone who proudly declared he’d seen Carner perform six times. Everyone left drenched in sweat yet giddy with Carner’s optimism, his lyrics still resonating through our bodies.