Blood Orange has shocked the world with his first full-length album since 2018. Essex Honey was surprisingly unanticipated considering Blood Oranges prolific career and high monthly listeners, but one thing is for certain, this album hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves.
The Album is brief compared to other projects from blood orange, and while this concerned me at first; Essex Honey is clearly an example of quality over quantity. With 14 absolutely stunning tracks Orange takes the listener on a journey of disjointed yet somehow seamlessly melded tracks.
The first track that is really bound to catch your attention was “Somewhere in between”. “Somewhere in between” is a standout track If not for the smooth consistent vocals, then for the beautiful outro instrumentals and lilting guitar hits. This song is just a beauty among a music industry that sounds increasingly mundane. As it fluctuates from slow to fast, fun harmonica to graceful saxophone, happy upbeat lyrics to introspection, in my eyes this song is Somewhere in between the best song from this album and the best song from Blood orange as an artist.
The next song is “Vivid light”; to explain this song It’s not even fair to describe it, but rather to describe my body’s reaction to it every time it graces my ears. It feels like some part of my brain exits my body, going to a place where each aspect of the song gives my mind a private concert that somehow melds into a comprehensive symphony of joy and peace. From reading a book in my bed to driving to a game, “Vivid light” is somehow the perfect multi-purpose song for all situations with yet another stunning outro of cello which could absolutely stand alone as an interlude.
If I were to do what I usually do when reviewing albums and go into depth about all the exceptional tracks from the album you would be reading for hours. So, I’ll leave listening to the rest of the tracks to you.
It’s insane to me that almost every track outro was a masterwork that could even be called the highlight of the listening experience, even beyond the quality of the songs themselves.
But beyond individual songs or outros, this album is truly an enigma for its synergy. The album tests limits in an organized and enjoyable way while still creating a cohesive and deeply provocative listening experience whether you’re listening to it start to finish, shuffled, or dissected and distributed into playlists there’s just an inherent energy in each track.
If there was one flaw with the album, it would be that below the power that the music itself holds a nitpicking eye may find the lyrics themselves lacking ingenuity or complexity. But in my eyes, this is comparable to the music of the smiths, maybe the lyrics aren’t crazy, but the execution, vocal delivery, and powerful melodies are so cohesive with what the artist decided to put into the song that there is no denying the skill of the artist.
Overall, rating this album is difficult; on the one hand I have zero issues with the album and have been repeating it. On the other is the need to keep the scale of this rating scale balanced. But anything less than a 9 would be doing all the hard work and creativity that went into creating this masterpiece an injustice. So, I give “Essex honey” a 9.6/10.
