Have You Heard... Blood Orange's Essex Honey

Album Cover produced by Katharina Korbjuhn (@katkorb - IG), cover reproduced not-for-profit, reproduced in compliance with Australian copyright law

Coming into this review, I was sick-to-death of hearing Blood Orange. All throughout the back-end of 2024, into early 2025, I could not escape his hit Champagne Coast, with the song going massively viral across social media. While, by no means did I think that it was a bad song, the constant repetition left me feeling pretty burnt out with his music overall. Boy did that feeling fade quickly, though. Essex Honey, (released on the 29th of August, 2025), is Blood Orange (real name Devonte Hynes)’s fifth studio album, and I found it to be an extremely moving addition to his already quite extensive discography.

Background & Context

Essex Honey was released under a dual partnership between Domino Recording Company and RCA Records, with this album serving as Hynes’ first studio album under RCA since signing with them in 2022. This record is also Hynes’ first studio album since Negro Swan was released in 2018. Negro Swan served as my first foray into Dev Hynes’ alter ego, largely through its single Charcoal Baby, a funky, r&b-based pop song that became a mainstay in my playlist for what felt like an eternity. That r&b-based pop feel was something that was pretty recurring within Negro Swan, and for this new release, it seems Hynes decided to run a completely different route, opting instead for more moving, and ambient tracks. Despite such a heavy departure from his regular sound, I gotta say, I absolutely loved it.

Themes

Thematically, I picked up hints of loss/grief, growing up, and reflecting on one’s home, with Essex Honey’s atmosphere feeling, to me like a journey into the psyche of someone in deep mourning. Lyrics like: “But now it’s sad in May, a harder truth to take in (nothing makes it better), and I swore I thought you’d make it through the night,” from Vivid Light, or “Another morning here without you, thinking where did our time go?” (Countryside), typified this atmosphere for me, as they served to echo a profound sense of loss.

Photo taken by Nick Harwood (@industryplant - Instagram), I do not own this photo, photo used not-for-profit, under compliance with Aus copyright law

Instrumentation & Production

To go along with these lyrics, Hynes’ instrumentation and production really elevate this release from a simple 14-track album, into a 47-minute immersive experience. Intros and outros that cut off abruptly, transitions that don’t end up going anywhere, these are all features that I usually dislike, but for some reason, they work so well for me here. On tracks like Thinking Clean or The Train (King’s Cross), Cello lines suddenly appear within the outros, and you’re thinking they’re going to transition to the next track, or swell into some big finish, but they don’t. These beautiful cello arrangements just appear briefly, before fading away as inconspicuously as they entered. 

Highlights

The Field and Mind Loaded also really highlight Hynes’ masterful instrumentation and production on this album, with both featuring some of the finest melodic work you’ll hear within the 2025 pop-sphere. The Field features so many different melodic elements and they ultimately combine to create one of the catchiest songs featured on Essex Honey. These elements include ambient sounds of a beach in the beginning, a gorgeous string break from 1:04-1:27, and some dreamy vocal features from Tariq Al-Shamir and Caroline Polachek. Mind Loaded directly follows The Field, and much like its predecessor, features some really beautiful uses of strings. The key differences that separate these two, come in the form of the lead melodic line from the piano, the tempo, and a standout feature from fellow pop-superstar, Lorde. 

Overall, however, Devonte Hynes. Blood Orange. I will never doubt you again. This album definitely ended my Champagne Coast-induced burn-out and it honestly left me wanting more from this new, more mature-sounding era that Hynes has seemingly 

 into. If you’re a fan of melodic wizardry, and looking for a production masterclass, check this album out immediately. As someone who doubted Dev Hynes coming into this review, it felt so damn good to be proven wrong. I’m officially back on the bandwagon! 

P.S. Dev, please don’t make us wait another seven years for another album.