Blood Orange - Essex Honey

It’s been seven years since Dev Hynes’s last release as Blood Orange, when ‘Negro Swan’ forewent much of the commercial song structures of stunning predecessor ‘Freetown Sound’ and, somewhat naturally, leaned fully into the unpredictability of in-studio exploration. Subsequent writing, production or feature credits on the likes of fellow experimentalists The Avalanches, Porches and contemporary immersive powerhouse Blackhaine have since paved the way for the even more expansive ‘Essex Honey’ - in part a collection of songs, but perhaps more a vast exploration of sound alongside some of Dev’s nearest and dearest. Underpinned by his distinctive hushed vocals, the compositions are deliberately unpredictable, jumping into strings, electronic beats, and chimes at a moment’s notice. Take ‘Mind Loaded’, which in its latter half ramps up rhythmic 80s keys, far removed from what any fan of its credited collaborators, Caroline Polachek and Lorde, may come to expect.

This unpredictability won’t be a surprise for those who have followed Blood Orange’s work closely, taking confident steps away from some of his earlier, more straightforward hits: not least after a deserved recent TikTok resurgence for his catchy 2011 track ‘Champagne Coast’. New fans may be surprised by the lack of anything close to its underground radio-ready melody, Dev instead presenting a series of largely experimental, delicate, and soulful ruminations. The feature list, rolled out like a personal invite to an intimate jam session nobody would want to miss, also includes Tirzah, Canadian singer-songwriter Eva Tolkin, and Turnstile frontman Brendan Yates. Each sit slightly outside of their standard affair, enveloped in Dev’s irregularities, as ‘Life’ embraces R&B against a down-tuned wall of wind instrumentation, and the surprising ‘Scared Of It’ twists the bare melodic bones of hardcore, as if filtered through a hushed jazz-wash. Perhaps the solo tracks - the gently driving ‘The Train (King’s Cross)’ or the tropical-tinged ‘I Listened (Every Night)’ - are the closest to what some may consider a classic song, if only in structure alone. But ‘Essex Honey’ isn’t about convention or the norm; as Dev continues to push against these boundaries, surrounded by acclaimed like-minded contemporaries, he delivers something far from easy but certainly entrancing.