As debut albums go, Olivia Dean’s Messy is up there as one of my favourites.
When you think of Olivia Dean in 2026, the last 12 months is likely what first comes to mind; she started 2025 strong with hit single It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be, from the Bridget Jones film, Mad About the Boy, before beginning to tease her sophomore album – The Art of Loving. It’s fair to say that this record was nothing short of monumental, pushing Olivia Dean to the forefront of British neo-soul and pop.
Sam Fender also owes his thanks; the pair released a version of Rein Me In, from his (also monumental) 2025 album People Watching, which gave the track a complete new lease of life. The Olivia Dean version is now one of his most streamed songs ever, including being much more popular than the original album version.
Evidence of Dean’s skyrocketing success can be seen elsewhere, too. In 2022, Olivia Dean featured on Loyle Carner’s album, hugo, for the track Homerton. This is currently Carner’s number 1 song on Spotify. Ezra Collective’s No One’s Watching Me, also featuring Olivia Dean, is now their most streamed song. I don’t think these are coincidences, rather a testament to the stratospheric rise Olivia Dean has seen in the last year.
Today, however, I want to focus on where it all began, with Dean’s debut album, Messy. It was released in June 2023, which was also a huge year for Olivia Dean (just perhaps not by her standards of today). Ultimately, 2023 was the year she broke through as an artist, after a few years of releasing sporadic singles – a couple of which would actually make the Messy track list. Messy was her first full release, and the one which properly welcomed the world to her artistry, earning her nominations for the Mercury Prize and the Rolling Stone UK ‘Breakthrough’ award.
Debut albums are always special. An artist’s first opportunity to put out a complete piece of work is incredibly important, and I am sure it is one of the moments which sticks with them the most out of their eventual career. Messy is the perfect debut album to me. It is so incredibly personal and emotional; I do think it trumps The Art of Loving on this front. Dean explores life, love, growth & family in a short but sweet 35 minutes and it ticks all the boxes for a deeply important and personal debut. Even the lighthearted interlude style track I Could Be A Florist has a sincerity and openness to it, where Dean explores what might have been in a different story, as she hurls towards a life as a pop star.
The record builds up to what remains my favourite track in Dean’s discography – Carmen. It tells the story of Dean’s grandmother, who emigrated from Guyana to the UK as part of the Windrush generation. It’s groovy, well-crafted, and a very meaningful tribute to Dean’s family roots and the entire Windrush generation. One of the first live performances I saw of Olivia Dean was for her 2023 Mercury Prize nomination, where she chose to play Carmen. I think this aptly summarises what this song and album means to her, and cements it as a very special debut.
Messy really feels like the embodiment of someone who has realised they might just be ‘making it’. Now The Art of Loving is out in the world, I do wonder if Messy will forever be in its shadow – but that’s fine. Messy is an exceptionally beautiful album, and it showcases a version of Dean we are likely to never see again. Yet that is what makes this album, and music as a whole, so powerful. It’s exactly what Olivia Dean is trying to tell us through the themes of Messy. She is growing, developing, and finding her way in the world. Where The Art of Loving is an anthology of hits, fan favourites and Dean’s climb to the very top, Messy is telling the tale of a different stage, an earlier stage, of her journey as a musical artist.
Waxing Lyrical 