Blood Orange - Essex Honey

“When the world’s in your hand, you can’t be inside of it”.

English singer-songwriter and producer Dev Hynes returns with Essex Honey, his fifth studio album under the moniker Blood Orange, seven years after his last LP. The album, released August 29th via RCA, stakes an immediate claim for a high place among the best projects of the year.

With autumn just around the corner, Essex Honey feels like it’s ushering it in. The ambience of the record, while still holding some warmth, carries a sense of wistful longing that feels appropriate for the coming season. The production, handled in its entirety by Hynes himself, is stunning, dreamy in some moments and almost a little psychedelic in others. The mixing of the intimate, airy vocals also contributes to the album’s unique atmosphere - a lot of them carry a light echo, which gives them an intriguing, captivating feel. 

The composition is executed beautifully, with Hynes making great use of several different orchestral elements throughout the record - be it woodwind on tracks such as “Vivid Light”, brass on songs like “Somewhere In Between”, or strings on “The Field” and more. These instruments add a singular flair to the tracks, greatly diversify them musically, and also make them feel a great deal more intimate and genuine. The whole record carries that really personal feel, through the instrumentation and also the songwriting. Hynes and his collaborators deliver a poetic lyrical effort, weaving through loss, hometown returns, loneliness and many other topics that are easy to relate to and empathize with. 

There are many of these aforementioned collaborators on Essex Honey, and every single one of them delivers at a very high level. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Caroline Polachek is the biggest standout among the guest artists, with three top-notch features. Among the others, modern alt-pop royalty Lorde’s vocals on “Mind Loaded” are fantastic, and R&B star Daniel Caesar makes a characteristically smooth appearance on “The Field”. None of the collaborators feel out of place, and all contribute in their own unique ways, adding variety and depth to the project. 

Overall, Essex Honey is a brilliant return from one of the most interesting artists in the modern alternative pop and R&B scenes. The record showcases all of Hynes’ best qualities in each of his musical facets; it also allows itself room for experimentation, but has enough restraint to not make that feel forced or overdone. It ends up sounding, more than anything, like a subtly passionate love letter to music and its creation, and more than deserves to be considered one of the top LPs to be released in 2025.

8.8/10