Blood Orange Essex Honey Review – Track-by-track breakdown

Blood Orange Essex Honey Review

When Blood Orange (Dev Hynes) releases an album it’s always an event. With Essex Honey, his first full-length in over six years, Blood Orange is back with a very personal (FAULTLessly so?) record about grief, community, and about art as survival.

Like much of Hynes’ catalogue, it’s not an album to dip in and out of casually and based on the fan conversations I’ve seen across socials, that invitation has been wholeheartedly accepted. Below, I take you track by track through Essex Honey, with both my impressions and reflections of what the wider fanbase has been saying.

Track-by-Track Review

1. Countryside (ft. Eva Tolkin, Liam Benzvi, Ian Isiah)

As both the lead single and visual centrepiece, Countryside feels like Blood Orange easing us into the world of Essex Honey. It’s lush, drifting, with harmonies that feel like the edges of a dream. Personally, I loved how the layered vocals never fully resolve, it mirrors the tension between grief and peace. Many fans online have called this “the quintessential Blood Orange opener,” comparing its cinematic quality to Coastal Grooves.

2. Essex Honey

The title track is where Hynes’ Essex roots come most vividly into focus. The production is hushed, intimate, almost as though you’re overhearing him write in real time. I found the guitar refrains quietly devastating, reminding me of Elliott Smith, which Hynes himself cites as inspiration. The fanbase has latched onto this track as the emotional core of the album; more than a few listeners described it as “like reading his diary with music attached.”

3. My Neighbourhood Sounds Like This (ft. Lorde & Caroline Polachek)

Pairing Lorde and Caroline Polachek might sound like a critic’s fantasy draft, but Hynes makes it feel natural and understated even. Their voices weave in and out of his falsetto, like echoes of a street chorus. Personally, I was struck by how lived-in this track feels: urban soundscapes turned into melody. Fans are already singling this out as the collaboration of the album, with some calling it “2025’s most unexpected trio.”

4. Grey Morning (ft. Mustafa)

This track aches. Mustafa’s voice, with its already-legendary fragility, sits over sparse piano chords, and the result is almost unbearable in its intimacy. For me, this was the moment the album stopped being a record and became a confessional. Across social spaces, listeners are calling Grey Morning “the quiet masterpiece” of the album, one they return to when they need stillness.

5. Static Youth (ft. Turnstile’s Brendan Yates)

It wouldn’t be Blood Orange without a left turn. Static Youth crashes into punk energy, Brendan Yates thrashing against Hynes’ smooth production. I personally liked the chaos of it the way it disrupts the flow without breaking it. Fans are divided: some find it jarring, others say it’s a highlight because it captures teenage rage bottled up inside an otherwise reflective record.

6. Zadie (ft. Zadie Smith)

Hearing acclaimed author Zadie Smith sing for the first time is as strange and perfect as it sounds. The track feels like spoken-word set to ambient haze, and it worked for me in ways I didn’t expect. Online, fans are calling this inclusion “the most Blood Orange move ever,” celebrating Hynes’ refusal to stay in traditional lanes.

7. Glass River (ft. Daniel Caesar)

Daniel Caesar’s velvet delivery pairs beautifully with Hynes’ textured production. I felt this track was one of the more immediate and soulful offerings, a palate cleanser after the more abstract moments. Fan consensus seems aligned many are calling it one of the most “replayable” songs on Essex Honey…Daniel Caesar back on the up and up?!?

8. Honey Interlude (ft. Tirzah)

This short piece is classic Hynes: brief, fleeting, but essential. Tirzah’s voice slips in like smoke, leaving almost as soon as it arrives. For me, it was the connective tissue of the record. Fans online love it for the same reason “the moment you know you’re in his world and can’t leave,” one listener wrote.

9. Late Night Library (ft. Kelly Zutrau & Naomi Scott)

This duet is soaked in nostalgia, balancing Kelly Zutrau’s airy vocal with Naomi Scott’s fuller tones. I liked how it captured a kind of suburban loneliness, mirroring the “Essex” theme of growing up between spaces. Fans have warmed to it as a deep cut, not the flashiest, but quietly one of the record’s strongest compositions.

10. Goodbye, Honey (ft. Amandla Stenberg & Ian Isiah)

Closing on Amandla Stenberg’s crystalline vocals feels like a full-circle moment. It’s a farewell, but one with warmth, not despair. I found it to be the most hopeful track of the album, even amidst its grief. The fanbase seems to agree, with many calling it “the perfect ending” one that leaves them both emptied and full.

Essex Honey is not an easy album, but it isn’t meant to be. It’s a record of memory, of collaboration, of grief turned into something communal and healing. For me, it’s Blood Orange’s most open-hearted project yet. Fans online are already hailing it as a career peak and it’s hard to disagree.

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