Blood Orange - Essex Honey

Blood Orange has long since been a revolutionary figure, with a command over sonics and genre that is inimitable. ‘Essex Honey’ feels like the pinnacle of that - a conversation involving every version of Blood Orange thus far, steeped in melancholia and that magic he’s beloved for. It’s a reflection on home, on grief and above all else the joy and reliable comfort music brings - in musing on that, he offers his own clarifying, healing antidote.

‘Essex Honey’ is delicately constructed - immediately, there is a whirlwind of influences at work, but it never feels like a tug of war between them. ‘Thinking Clean’ is the first manifestation of that quality. Beginning simple, but building quickly towards euphoric beats before descending just as fast into tense strings, it could easily have become chaotic and disorderly. Yet, under Blood Orange’s careful hands, it feels like a natural unravelling of sound. It never feels jolting or unnerving - everything is woven together with a precision that makes each change feel invigorating.

‘The Field’ feels like the peak of this project - quiet guitar plucking that feels like birdsong, and a particular quality to the beat that seems to immerse you into a specific moment, one of golden hour light that only exists in British summertime, sprawled on the grass, lost to contemplation. Much of the album unfolds in this way, with each track built to be consumed by and fall headfirst into. It seems to fight a battle between loosening up, either allowing yourself to unfurl and peacefully breathe in the horns of ‘Somewhere in Between’ or the tense strings of ‘Thinking Clean’, or lose yourself to introspective thought. It’s in the midst of that that ‘Essex Honey’ comes to life.

He enlists some big names onto the project - Caroline Polachek’s signature vocal flips add an air of etherality to ‘Mind Loaded’, whilst long-time collaborator Brendan Yates of Turnstile lends his distinctive vocals to the quietly tense atmosphere of ‘Scared of It’. There’s a freedom to ‘Essex Honey’, precise as it may be. It gives itself permission to loosen and unfold, to explore its wildest thoughts and ideas, without ever losing that distinctly Blood Orange sense of control.