NEWS
Blood Orange has announced his new album ‘Essex Honey’ and shared the first two tracks – listen to ‘Mind Loaded’ and ‘Somewhere In Between’ below.
The album will be the first album from Blood Orange – aka Dev Hynes – since 2018’s ‘Negro Swan’ and it will feature appearances from Hynes’ previous collaborators Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates and Tariq Al-Sabir.
Also appearing are author Zadie Smith, The Durutti Column, Wet’s Kelly Zutrau, Tirzah and actors Naomi Scott and Amandla Stenberg. The record is released on August 29 via RCA Records and you can pre-order it here.
The first tastes of ‘Essex Honey’ come in the form of ‘Mind Loaded’, a minimalist but blissfully warm track that features vocals from Polachek, Lorde and Mustafa, and ‘Somewhere In Between’, a busier, slinky R&B track. Listen to both here:
A press release states that ‘Essex Honey’ is an album that has been “created from a dreamscape of his journey working through grief” and harkens back to his childhood growing up in the titular county.
Earlier this month, Hynes announced details of a UK and European tour for Blood Orange that will kick off later this year. It follows on from his upcoming US tour and kicks off in Berlin on October 29, with London shows planned for November 8, 9 and 10. See the full list of dates here and find UK tickets here and international tickets here.
Several of his US dates will see him opening for Lorde on her huge tour supporting new album ‘Virgin’, several songs of which were produced by Hynes. He also played cello and bass on the single ‘Man Of The Year’ and synths and guitar on ‘Favourite Daughter’.
He continues to be one of the most in-demand producers in alternative music, with the news coming this week that he has worked on ‘We Are Love’, the forthcoming new album from The Charlatans.
He also appeared on Turnstile’s ‘Seein’ Stars’ from the album ‘Never Enough’ this summer, contributing backing vocals, and also played cello on ‘Never Enough’ and ‘Look Out For Me’.
In a five-star review of ‘Negro Swan’ in 2018, NME wrote: “Spoken-word interludes from writer and transgender activist Janet Mock pepper the album, punctuating the stream-of-conscious, journey-into-the-unknown experience. At times, ‘Negro Swan’ crosses over from album and into a radio station from a world just outside ours; Dev Hynes has created a fabulous collection of cascading sounds.”
Perry Farrell has released another public apology following an on-stage confrontation involving his bandmate Dave Navarro.
The Jane's Addiction frontman was involved in a physical altercation with guitarist Dave Navarro last year during a live performance, an incident that prompted the band to cancel their reunion tour and eventually led to their split.
“I'd like to address what happened on stage last year,” Perry, 66, said in a statement shared across both his personal Instagram account and Jane's Addiction’s official page. “I've reflected on it and know I didn't handle myself the way I should have. I apologize to our patrons and my bandmates for losing my temper and for disrupting the show.”
He went on to admit that he did not meet fan expectations and described himself as deeply remorseful toward everyone impacted by the incident.
“Jane's Addiction has been at the center of my life for decades. The band, the songs, the patrons, and the impact that we've had on music and culture mean more to me than any words I could ever possibly write down,” he shared.
“My aim has always been to give our audience the best possible show, something real, honest and positive. In Boston, we fell short of that, and I'm truly sorry to everyone who was impacted.”
Jane's Addiction also issued its own statement regarding the altercation, which ultimately led to the group’s remaining members filing a lawsuit against Perry alleging assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract.
“Today we are here to announce that we have come together one last time to resolve our differences, so that the legacy of Jane's Addiction will remain the work the four of us created together,” the band wrote, signaling that the group would not move forward with Perry. “We now look forward to the future as we embark on our separate musical and creative endeavors.”
