2xLP 150g 45rpm BLACK VINYL

Devonté Hynes' first proper Blood Orange album in seven years coincidentally arrived the same month "Champagne Coast" (a Coastal Grooves highlight gone viral) and "Charcoal Baby" (off Negro Swan) were awarded respective platinum and gold certifications in the U.S. For Hynes, Essex Honey was in no way a return after a lengthy absence. He thrived throughout the time between Blood Orange LPs by scoring films and television series that linked him with Melina Matsoukas, Rebecca Hall, and Paul Schrader, among other directors. Fields, his collaboration with Third Coast Percussion, made him a Grammy-nominated classical composer. He was also involved with recordings by Carly Rae Jepsen, the Avalanches, and Turnstile. Even more astonishing as a demonstration of Hynes' range, there was a five-month period when Paul McCartney, Sugababes, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland each released a Blood Orange remix. Hynes surely could have taken his main alias in any number of directions, but instead, Essex Honey exists largely on familiar ground -- quite literally so. It expands on previous Blood Orange themes like alienation, grief, and ambivalence with regard to Hynes' lonesome adolescence. There is a strong sense of place with (dis)locations, scenes, and experiences often evoked or detailed. Nostalgia and trauma entwine most powerfully on "Countryside," a wafting ballad where Hynes is out of harm's way but lonesome and distressed: "As my chest begins to tighten, I seek comfort in the leaves." Hynes transmutes glum post-punk, winsome indie pop, and progressive soul with deviations far outside those styles, and many of the songs indeed change tack. Driving rhythms sprout from empty spaces, wilt, and regenerate. "The Last of England" begins and ends as a piano ballad and contains a simmering drum'n'bass section in the middle. "The Train (King's Cross)" is full of anxious locomotive energy ("Can't turn back and the worst is yet to come") and lets the listener out to the sounds of river waves, seagulls, and sawing cello. For every other reference to Hynes' surroundings, there's a nod to the North, more specifically Manchester. The Durutti Column are sampled, New Order are name-checked, and the recurring gentle wails of harmonica might bring the Smiths to mind. Elsewhere, the Replacements and Elliott Smith are quoted, and Yo La Tengo are interpolated. All of these figures hover at the periphery, just past Hynes' posse of sympathetic co-lead and background vocalists -- a number greater than indicated by the featured artist credits. Hynes' hooks, frequently accompanied by his keys and/or strings, are at their most exquisitely sorrowful here. A remarkable album with more gateways than a knowing mixtape, Essex Honey shows that Hynes is as ingenious as a would-be DJ, A&R, and talent connector as he is as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer.

A1        Look At You
A2        Thinking Clean
A3        Somewhere In Between
A4        The Field
B1        Mind Loaded
B2        Vivid Light
B3        Countryside
C1        The Last Of England
C2        Life
C3        Westerberg
D1        The Train (King's Cross)
D2        Scared Of It
D3        I Listened (Every Night)
D4        I Can Go