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Blood Orange is back with Essex Honey, featuring Lorde, Polachek & Turnstile’s Brendan Yates

TM

by Tammy Moir

TM

by Tammy Moir

Blood Orange is back with Essex Honey – bold, collab-heavy, and full of heart and haze

Devonté Hynes is the kind of artist who shapeshifts without losing his centre, effortlessly spinning soul, indie, classical, and pop into something unmistakably his – always personal, always one step ahead.

His first studio album since 2018’s Negro Swan, Essex Honey sees Blood Orange stepping back into the spotlight with a stacked crew in tow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_0DYKvcjCE

Due out August 29 via RCA, the record’s stacked guestlist feels like a who’s-who of alt-pop royalty: Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, Tirzah, Wet’s Kelly Zutrau, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates, and even novelist Zadie Smith, to name a few.

Written, recorded and produced by Hynes himself, Essex Honey is shaping up to be a sprawling, genre-fluid return, touching on everything from punk-soul to hazy R&B. The freshly dropped double preview –’Somewhere in Between’ and ‘Mind Loaded’ – leans into the dreamy and the deliberate.

‘Mind Loaded’ in particular is a slow-burn standout, featuring Lorde, Mustafa and Polachek in a late-night swirl of voices, nodding to both Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens in all the right ways.

There’s also a tour on the cards, and if these first tracks are anything to go by, Essex Honey might just be Blood Orange’s most ambitious (and collaborative) work to date.

Pre-save Essex Honey here. Check out Blood Orange Tour dates below:

September

  • Sep 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Portola Music Festival (solo set)

  • Sep 23 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA LIVE! (with Turnstile)

  • Sep 24 – Richmond, VA @ Brown’s Island (with Turnstile)

  • Sep 26 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden (with Lorde)

  • Sep 27 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre (with Lorde)

  • Sep 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center (with Lorde)

October

  • Oct 14 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre (with Lorde)

  • Oct 17 – Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden (with Lorde)

  • Oct 18 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum (with Lorde)

  • Oct 29 – Berlin, Germany @ Columbiahalle (headline)

  • Oct 31 – Torino, Italy @ C2C Festival (headline)

November

  • Nov 3 – Paris, France @ Pitchfork Music Festival (headline)

  • Nov 4 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg (headline)

  • Nov 8 – London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Theatre (headline, in the round)

  • Nov 9 – London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Theatre (headline)

  • Nov 10 – London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Theatre (headline)

  • Nov 13 – Bristol, UK @ Electric Bristol (headline)

  • Nov 15 – Manchester, UK @ AO Arena (with Lorde)

  • Nov 19 – Toronto, ON @ History (headline)

  • Nov 29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel (headline)

  • Nov 30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel (headline)

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