Blood Orange releases Essex Honey, a grief-driven homecoming album

Devonté Hynes, performing as Blood Orange, released Essex Honey on August 29, 2025, a new album that traces his return to his Essex roots and the work of processing recent personal losses. The record, issued on RCA Records, arrives after a months-long rollout of singles including The Field in June, Mind Loaded and Somewhere in July, and the ethereal Countryside, which Hynes issued days before the full album and which features Eva Tolkin, Liam Benzvi and Ian Isiah.

According to a press release, Essex Honey was "created from a dreamscape of his journey working through grief" and explores "the way music has inspired, healed, and interwoven itself through Hynes life." The album is framed as a more solitary, memoirlike work than some of his previous projects, moving from melancholic synths and sparse keys to chamber textures and recurring string motifs. On opening track Look At You, he sings, "In your grace I look for some meaning / But I found none," while Thinking Clean confronts existential despair with the line, "What if everything was taken from me? I don't want to be here anymore," the lyrics underscoring the record's preoccupation with loss.