The Boy Who Played the Harp is the third studio album by British rapper Dave, released on 24 October 2025 through Neighbourhood Recordings. The album serves as a follow-up to We're All Alone in This Together (2021), his second studio album, and Split Decision (2023), his collaborative EP with Central Cee. It features guest appearances from James Blake, Jim Legxacy, Kano, Tems, and Nicole Blakk. Dave primarily handled production for the album, alongside Jo Caleb, Jonny Leslie, Kyle Evans, Dom Maker, Fraser T. Smith, .Nathan, and Blake and Legxacy themselves.
The album's title alludes to the Book of Samuel in the Bible (1 Samuel 16:14–23), where Saul summoned a young, brave shepherd, David, to play the harp to soothe him as he was being troubled by evil spirits. The album was released to critical acclaim with many critics praising its lyricism, storytelling, and concept. The album became Dave's third consecutive number one album on the UK Albums Chart, moving approximately 74,000 units in its first week, while becoming the first UK rap artist to debut three albums atop the chart. Internationally, the record debuted at number one in Ireland, the top ten in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland, and the top twenty in Austria and Canada. The album was preceded by one single: "Raindance" featuring Tems; the song peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart, marking Dave's fourth chart-topper on the chart. The album was nominated for British Album of the Year at the Brit Awards.
Dave is currently embarking on his The Boy Who Played the Harp Tour in support of the album, which commenced on 2 February 2026, in Munich, Germany, and will conclude on 17 October 2026, in Lagos, Nigeria, consisting of 43 shows spanning Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America.
Background Following the release of Dave's critically acclaimed and commercially successful second studio album, We're All Alone in This Together (2021), Dave released multiple loose singles and projects including the chart-topping single, "Starlight" (2022), On 1 June and "Sprinter" (2023) with Central Cee, the lead single to the duo's collaborative EP, Split Decision (2023). After dropping loose singles and features in 2023, Dave embarked on a year-long hiatus from music in 2024, selectively teasing the record on social media.
On 1 December 2023, Dave posted an Instagram post of a checklist with several goals, including one that read: "Start album 3". In May 2025, during an interview at a Baller League event, Dave revealed that he was "finishing the album" in Los Angeles and Paris. On 10 May, Dave shared an Instagram post to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his "BL@CKBOX Freestyle", revealing that the album would be released before 2026.
Recording and title
The majority of the record was produced by Dave himself (under the stage name: Santan), alongside Jo Caleb and Jonny Leslie with repeated appearances from James Blake, Fraser T. Smith, and Kyle Evans.
During the gap between We're All Alone in This Together (2021) and The Boy Who Played the Harp, Dave told The Face he was in the studio everyday working towards the album. During the process Dave would share the songs he was recording with his "inner circle" to gain their feedback hoping to create a body of work that was different from his previous albums and not something you would play "outside with your friends"——noting that "it’s a demanding album. It demands focus. It demands a greater respect for concept and story". Dave intentionally wanted to keep the track listing short and opted to stay away from adding hit songs to the record: "I got a lot of obvious hit records that we’ve left off" due to them feeling "a little bit random" due to the content and subject matter of the record.
Critics referred to the record as a "religious" album, Dave clarified that it's more "biblical than it is religious", continuing that it's "to show the parallels between two people. The purpose of being named something, and living up to your purpose"——referring to his birth name David in relation to King David. The album's title alludes to the Book of Samuel in the Bible (1 Samuel 16:14–23), where Saul summoned a young, brave shepherd, David, to play the harp to soothe him as he was being troubled by evil spirits.
Music and themes The Boy Who Played the Harp is exactly 47 minutes and 43 seconds long, marking Dave's shortest album. The Boy Who Played the Harp is a conscious hip-hop, UK rap album, accompanied by heavy gospel influence. The album incorporates elements of afrobeats, political hip-hop, alternative hip-hop, and UK R&B. Similar to Dave's debut album, Psychodrama, the record is considered a "concept album" by critics, while his previous record We're All Alone in This Together was not. Throughout the record, Dave follows a continuous theme of God, faith, and destiny while viewing himself as a modern version of David. Throughout the record, Dave covers topics of real-life problems, including anxiety, overthinking, fear of failure, infidelity to his ex-girlfriend, and success guilt. On the record, Dave admitted to being in therapy, expressing that it hadn't worked for him, and that he suffered from alcoholism before reaching sobriety.
While much of the record included strong Biblical references to several books from the Bible, Dave also covered a series of political topics on the record, such as the oppression in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and how despite him advocating for the Congolese, his wealth is depicted by blood diamonds – potentially harvested from Congo, his urge to speak on the genocide in Palestine, however, he's afraid to speak due to the potential repercussions on his career, his advocacy for boycotts of Israel, corruption in many African countries, slavery in the Trucial States, and the mistreatment of locals from those on vacation. Dave also covers the topics of domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, and methods of sexual harassment.
In "Chapter 16", Dave structures the track as a conversation with Kano, an artist that he once looked up to. The two have a direct conversation on the track as they give each other respect for their contributions to hip-hop. They ask each other introspective questions about the music industry and their own lives. In the track, it was revealed by Dave that its title refers to 1 Samuel 16, the sixteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. On "Selfish", Dave spends the 4 minutes and 32 seconds questioning himself and the decisions he makes, revealing the impacts they have on his life while alluding to attending therapy on Harley Street and spending time at the Grosvenor Casino on Edgware Road.
On "Fairchild", Dave tells a story about Tamah, who faced sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and an attempted rape. While Dave narrated the story, Nicole Blakk rapped the first verse from Tamah's perspective. On "The Boy Who Played the Harp", the final and title track, Dave placed himself in different scenarios, debating his own morality. He covers the topics of fighting in World War II for the sake of his country, the Civil Rights Movement and the Decolonisation of Africa in the 1960s, and the Battle of Karbala, putting himself in the shoes of Husayn ibn Ali to test his morality.
Release and promotion On 1 October, Dave had taken to Instagram to announce the release of the album, revealing the title, artwork, and date, while also releasing vinyls, CDs, cassettes, and bundles to purchase for pre-order. On 10 October, Dave shared a short-film for the album, in collaboration with Stone Island Sound before releasing exclusive Stone Island vinyls, CDs, and cassettes. On 20 October 2025, billboards of Dave alongside other artists, including Tems and James Blake, began to appear in London. Later that day, Dave unveiled the track listing and featured artists, confirming Tems and Blake, alongside Jim Legxacy and Kano. The Boy Who Played the Hard was released for streaming, CD and LP on 24 October 2025, Neighbourhood Recordings. Upon the release of the album, Dave partnered with the London-based streetwear brand, Corteiz to release merchandise bundles of the album. On 29 October, Dave re-released his fan-favourite Psychodrama merchandise, bundled with physicals of The Boy Who Played the Harp.
Despite no pre-released singles, three tracks from the album charted on the UK Singles Chart upon the albums release: "Raindance" (5), "History" (9), and "Chapter 16" (11). UK chart rules prevent artists from having more than three songs in the top 40 at once; without these rules, all ten tracks would have debuted within the top 20. On 26 November 2025, Dave released the Harrison Adair-directed music video for "Chapter 16", which depicts their conversation over dinner. On 9 January 2026, Dave released the Nathan James Tetty-directed music video for "Raindance". Filmed in Lagos, Nigeria, critics have described the video as "leaked wedding video footage", fueling the dating rumours between Dave and Tems. "Raindance" was serviced to Italian radio airplay on 16 January 2026 as the albums lead single. The same month "Raindance" climbed to number one on the UK Singles Chart.
Announced on 16 October, Dave revealed he would embark on his fourth tour "The Boy Who Played the Harp Tour", in support of the album. The tour will commence on 2 February 2026, in Munich, Germany, and will conclude on 30 August 2026, in Leeds, England, consisting of 39 shows spanning Australia, Europe, and North America.
Critical reception
Upon release, The Boy Who Played the Harp received positive reviews from music critics. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.
Writing for AllMusic, David Crone wrote that "Dave strings religion, responsibility, and hypocrisy into his most intricate album to date" and that the record "is skeletal, grandiose, and contemplative, a web of contradictions where answers come with questions of their own; caught between darkness and light, the U.K. legend wrings out some of his most compelling meditations yet". Clashs Robin Murray described the record as "staggeringly powerful", continuing that "Dave pushes his art to higher levels". Murray wrote that the album "almost purposefully designed to exclude easy hot takes, and narrow definitions", before concluding that, "it's a record that truly speaks for itself, and in truth there is no higher praise we could give it". Adam England for DIY wrote that "across its ten tracks, Dave is found in an equally introspective and outward-looking mood, with faith also playing a major part in his narrative", before concluding that "Dave has grown from hot young talent to a true master storyteller".