Blood Orange mastermind Dev Hynes is always busy doing film and TV scores and helping other people out on their records, but he hasn't released a full-on Blood Orange album since 2018's Negro Swan. That's about to change. Last month, Blood Orange released the new single "The Field," an absolutely gorgeous collaboration with an unexpected group of people: the Durutti Column, Tariq Al-Sabir, Caroline Polachek, and Daniel Caesar. That turns out to be the first single from a new Blood Orange album called Essex Honey. It's coming out next month, and it'll feature a great many collaborators, some of whom have worked with Blood Orange before and some of whom are entirely new to the fold, or to music itself.
Like Charli XCX, Dev Hynes comes from the English city of Essex, outside London. According to a press release, Essex Honey is a reflective work about growing up in Essex and about coping with an overall feeling of grief and loss. In addition to the four people featured on "The Field," the LP has collaborations with Lorde, Turnstile's Brendan Yates, Tirzah, Wet’s Kelly Zutrau, Ian Isiah, Eva Tolkin, and Liam Benzvi. Other people featured on the record include the author Zadie Smith, who has never sung on an album before, as well as the actors Naomi Scott and Amandla Stenberg.
Dev Hynes wrote, produced, and recorded Essex Honey, and I don't expect the songs with guests to sound that different from those without. Case in point, he has just shared two more tracks, both of which shine with the same blissfully bittersweet gentleness of "The Field." "Somewhere In Between" has no credited guests. It's a cascade of guitars, saxophones, and harmonicas, and it's lovely. "Mind Loaded," meanwhile, features vocals from Lorde, Caroline Polachek, and Mustafa, all of whom blend into the track's dizzy, incandescent pulse. Below, listen to both of those tracks and check out Blood Orange's upcoming dates, including shows with Lorde and Turnstile.
TOUR DATES:
9/21 - San Francisco, CA @ Portola Music Festival
9/23 - Columbus, OH @ Kemba Live *
9/24 - Richmond, VA @ Brown's Island *
9/26 - Boston, MA @ TD Garden ^
9/27 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre ^
9/30 - Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Cargo Center ^
10/14 - Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre ^
10/17 - Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Arena ^
10/18 - Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum ^
10/29 - Berlin, Germany @ Columbiahalle
10/31 - Torino, Italy @ C2C Festival
11/03 - Paris, France @ Pitchfork Festival
11/04 - Utrecht, Nehterlands @ Tivoli Vredenburg
11/07 - London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Theater
11/08 - London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Theater
11/09 - London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Theater
11/10 - London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Theater
11/13 - Bristol, UK @ Electric Bristol
11/15 - Manchester, UK @ AO Arena ^
11/19 - Toronto, ON @ History
11/20 - Toronto, ON @ History
11/29 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/30 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
12/02 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
12/03 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
12/04 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
12/05 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
* with Turnstile, Speed, & Jane Remover
^ with Lorde
Essex Baby is out 8/29 on RCA.
