“This is God’s plan/He said it to me.” So opens The Boy Who Played the Harp, the third album from Dave, his first full-length offering since 2021’s We’re All Alone in This Together, which cemented his legacy as one of UK rap’s most consummate storytellers. “My mum told me what my name really means and the powers just kicked in,” he continues on the James Blake collaboration “History”, aligning himself with the biblical King David—“the boy who played the harp” referenced in the album title. Certainly, Dave has his own giants to face. He lays out his fears most explicitly on “Selfish”, another James Blake joint, reeling off a litany of sins and self-suspicions over ominous chords and haunting vocal samples. “My 27th Birthday” underscores his inner conflicts across almost eight minutes of restrained piano and hi-hat-centric percussion: new money clashes with old, moral conviction with the ethics of consumption, work ethic with the sacrifice of ambition. The state of the world weighs heavy; “How can you be King?/How can you be King?/Don’t speak for the people,” he asks on the title track, closing out the record with a powerful interrogation of his own commitment to social justice and a sage reminder that the push for change is a collective, intergenerational effort. The introspection is admirable but the album’s highlights occur when Dave steps outside of himself, whether it’s to position himself as a narrator—unpicking the psychology of a criminal with “Marvellous”, calmly outlining the reasons women may fear men on “Fairchild”—or to engage with his peers as on the sultry Tems teamup “Raindance” or “Chapter 16”, which sees him form an inquisitive dialogue with grime heavyweight (and Top Boy co-star) Kano. And while The Boy Who Played the Harp is a more sonically sombre affair than his previous works, the standard of observational insight and lyrical wordplay that have so far earned him an Ivor Novello, a BRIT and the Mercury Music Prize, remains unchanged. Bending the word “Exodus” so that “there’s repentance in the Bible...” lands with the punchline “…God, remind my ex of this” (“175 Months”) is a shining example. It’s a timely record, arriving in a moment where problems seem insurmountable. In the Bible, Dave’s namesake was tasked with playing his harp to soothe a mind plagued by evil spirits—The Boy Who Played the Harp rises to the same challenge with aplomb.