Happier Times Ahead
by Raye

Album: This Music May Contain Hope (2026)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Raye's second album, This Music May Contain Hope (2026), spans a wide range of emotions that Raye separated by season, with summer - the payoff - coming last. "Happier Times Ahead," which anchors the summer section, is the penultimate track on the album, coming just before "Fin," which is mostly closing credits. The song is very hopeful, ending the album on a positive note after some pretty heavy soul searching on tracks like "Winter Woman" and "I Know You're Hurting." Raye told Apple Music it was "a warm hug as you are leaving some of those darker earlier things."
  • In addition to Raye, seven different songwriters are credited on this track, including Chris Hill, a London composer with credits on nine tracks from the album. "That one I think we wrote in another band jam session in London at the end of 2024," he told Songfacts. "We had a brilliant jazz pianist named Joe Webb with us, and we just had a really fun time playing and jamming ideas which evolved into songs (there are all sorts of tracks that never made it!).

    I completely forgot about it until Raye revisited it at the end of 2025 and we were all like, 'Awesome, this is such a cool vibe.' She worked on it in France, her band then worked on it in December in Metropolis, recorded it to tape, and that's it."
  • The song closes with what is essentially a spoken blessing:

    May you be loved, and may you feel joy
    May you know peace that surpasses all understanding


    This is a variation on Philippians 4:7 from the Bible:

    And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding
    Will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus


    This section ties into Raye's Christian faith, which she credits for helping her get through some dark times in her life, including a bout with alcohol addiction a few years before the album was released.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Shawn Mullins

Shawn MullinsSongwriter Interviews

"Lullaby" singer Shawn Mullins on "Beautiful Wreck," beating the Devil, and his writing credit on the Zac Brown Band song "Toes."

Booker T. Jones

Booker T. JonesSongwriter Interviews

The Stax legend on how he cooked up "Green Onions," the first time he and Otis Redding saw hippies, and if he'll ever play a digital organ.

Hawksley Workman

Hawksley WorkmanSongwriter Interviews

One of Canada's most popular and eclectic performers, Hawksley tells stories about his oldest songs, his plentiful side projects, and the ways that he keeps his songwriting fresh.

Graham Parker

Graham ParkerSongwriter Interviews

When Judd Apatow needed under-appreciated rockers for his Knocked Up sequel, he immediately thought of Parker, who just happened to be getting his band The Rumour back together.

Don Felder

Don FelderSongwriter Interviews

Don breaks down "Hotel California" and other songs he wrote as a member of the Eagles. Now we know where the "warm smell of colitas" came from.