Blood Orange – ‘Essex Honey’ review: stunning reflections on the meaning of home

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Dev Hynes has frequently used the alias of Blood Orange to convey his worldview through a carefully crafted, nuanced lens. His magnum opus, 2016’s ‘Freetown Sound’, pays homage to Sierra Leone’s capital city, where his father is from, and makes use of snippets like, “Black can get you over, black can sit you down”, from the 1994 documentary, Black is… Black Ain’t. Later, ‘Negro Swan’ took shape around Janet Mock’s meditation on “doing too much”, framing an album preoccupied with how queer people of colour must learn to assimilate to survive. Now, after a six-year break from Blood Orange, Hynes has chosen to ground himself by returning to his hometown in Essex.

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‘Essex Honey’, his fifth album, comes inspired by the formative undercurrents of growing up, leaving home and finding refuge in music when confronted with loss. To assist, he’s enlisted an enviable all-star line-up of sad pop MVPs: Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates, Tariq Al-Sabir and author Zadie Smith. Then you have the return of trusted collaborators such as Ian Isiah and Tirzah. It’s as if Hynes is conducting his own private orchestra within the collection, as each voice brings a different element to the production, without it ever sounding cluttered.

Its first single, ‘The Field’, shows Hynes at his finest. Pulling from R&B, pop and electronica, his entrancingly soft vocals reflect: “Feel it every day, and the sun keeps you warm / Hard to let you go, see you when I know why it’s always grey.” He is, of course, bolstered by Al-Sabir, Caesar and Polachek, whose vocals have only ever been a welcome addition to the Blood Orange canon since her feature on ‘Chamakay’ back in 2013.

Among this, there’s the revelry of orchestral flourishes. ‘Thinking Clean’ launches from piano solo to a jazz-infused drumbeat, cutting to silence before a singular cello and reverberating vocals bring an Arthur Russell quality to the track. The album also rewards close listening, scattering uncredited guest appearances like Easter eggs. Is that Lorde on ‘I Listened (Every Night)’? Maybe. What matters more is the presence of these familiar voices, woven into the fabric of Hynes’s vision.

Newfound collaborator and former NME Cover star Mustafa is no stranger to loss, as much of his solo work has drawn inspiration from the subject. His warm vocals pierce through tracks like the slow-burning ‘Vivid Light’, where he remains uncredited, yet complements Hynes’ staccato with his ethereal yet woeful reflections. “He has seen the vivid light, thievish in his disdain as a life of honour falls, I find myself in rage,” they duet.

Running throughout ‘Essex Honey’ are reflections on British identity and the complexities of being a Black British man from an Essex suburb. This is particularly prominent in ‘The Last of England’ where a soundbite gives way to Hynes singing, “Elizabeth, it travels through… and Ilford is the place that I hold dear amongst / All the things that we had to do, my sister understands just how it feels.” It’s this delicate placing of guest vocals, personal anecdotes and on-the-street soundbites that make ‘Essex Honey’ the most organised sketchbook, one which perfectly encapsulates this particular moment in time.