Dev Hynes’s first album in six years takes us on a musical odyssey back to his hometown, exploring an English upbringing marked by memory and grief.
Released at the end of August, Essex Honey is the perfect album for the in-between seasons. Its air of melancholy mirrors the subtle sadness in the shift in seasons, reflecting a British fixation: talking about the weather. Hynes reflects this cultural trait by shaping the album around the shift from summer to autumn, letting bright tones gradually give way to moodier textures and introspective themes. It replicates a delicate moment when the lingering warmth of summer meets the creeping chill of autumn.
The beauty of Blood Orange lies in Hynes’s versatility as an artist. His most popular albums, Cupid Delux, Coastal Grooves and Negro Swan, offer different and distinct sonic landscapes, exploring identity, vulnerability and emotion. Hynes shows a continuation of rejecting a single mode of expression, masterfully and fluidly shifting genres across albums, blending elements of R&B, funk, rock and experimental pop to create something that is so uniquely Blood Orange.
‘Look At You’ opens with a shadowy and spectral tone, bringing breathy falsetto with layered spoken word and looping sounds. The softened textures of Hynes’ voice, paired with subtle chord repetition, give the track a dreamlike and introspective quality that sets the tone for the album’s emotional landscape. Similarly, ‘Mind Loaded’, featuring Caroline Polachek, Lorde and Mustafa, is a hauntingly beautiful track that weaves together each artist’s distinct vocal texture. Lorde offers a homage to Elliot Smith in the lyric “Everything Means Nothing to Me,” a song Hynes enjoyed during his formative years. A poignant and cathartic collaboration that explores vulnerability paired with memory, the layered harmonies and lyrical fragments linger long after the song ends.
I love how Hynes’ collaborators are utilised for orchestral value, contributing voices and textures that serve as instrumental layers within the broader emotional landscape of the album. Daniel Caesar, The Durutti Column, Caroline Polachek, Ben Watt from Everything But The Girl, Amandla Stenberg and award-winning novelist Zadie Smith are just a few of the collaborators on the album, where each of their voices is carefully and thoughtfully embedded within the album’s sonic landscape.
Blood Orange’s fifth album is marked by grief and reflection on his upbringing, hand in hand with how music has had the power of healing for him. Marked by pure emotion and love for his craft, this is a contender for album of the year in my opinion!
““There are seasons we walk with others. Then there are the times in our lives we journey on our own. It’s in those days we hear and learn more because we talk less.”” by Ian Sane is licensed under CC BY 2.0.