Sometimes it feels like the Universe is speaking to you through music. Sometimes the bar is playing “This Must Be The Place,” and it gives you the courage to tell your best friend that you have feelings for her. Sometimes she tells you she does not feel the same way. And sometimes Blood Orange, undisputed master of sexy sad music, is playing in town the next day.
Using the moniker Blood Orange, the British multi-hyphenate musician Dev Hynes has established himself as the 21st century successor of pop music auteurs like Prince and David Bowie. Blood Orange songs toe the delicate line between tidy nostalgia and daring futurism, repurposing the sounds of Disco, Funk, and 80s New Wave to craft catchy grooves filled with melancholic yearning. Hynes has left his distinctive stylistic imprint on genres ranging from electropop to ambient synth, indie rock, stoner rap, and hardcore punk. His lengthy list of collaborators includes Florence and the Machine, Solange, A$AP Rocky, and Britney Spears.
After a string of critically acclaimed albums in the 2010s, Hynes is using his well-earned clout to push his sound in a moodier and more experimental direction. The latest Blood Orange album, last year’s Essex Honey, swaps the funky bass lines and disco beats for swelling strings and hushed acapella performances. Features on the album include avant garde Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti and the acclaimed novelist Zadie Smith; both the English chamber pop band Caroline and the slinky electropop singer Caroline Polacek provide guest vocals.
Hynes debuted the album last year through a European tour and a string of dates opening for the hardcore punk band (and sometime-collaborators) Turnstile. His DC show at The Anthem on March 3 marked the start of a second tour leg in North America. Playing for a sold out crowd, his five piece band debuted a new set list which mixed Essex Honey tracks with old standards from the Blood Orange discography, including several songs that he had not played live in at least a decade. Sometimes you need to cry your feelings out, and sometimes you need to dance them away. Thankfully, at the Blood Orange show you can always do both.
Blood Orange surprised the crowd by opening with the Angel’s Pulse cut “I Wanna C U” whose short 1:15 runtime left the photographers in the pit scrambling to snap off some shots. The band then launched immediately into the meditative “Thinking Clean,” whose solo cello outro provided Hynes the perfect segue to deliver his cover of The Smith’s “How Soon Is Now?” As the band quieted to let Hynes take melodic lead on his cello, he delivered the song’s plaintive closing lines (“I am human and I need to be loved/ Just like everybody else does”) to the audience’s screaming approval. Shredding his way through this segment of the set, Hynes revealed the cello’s potential as a true rock ‘n roll instrument.
The new setlist delivers rich arrangements of Essex Honey songs which showcase Hynes’s dramatic and orchestral sensibilities. From the luscious opening synths of “Look At You” to the arpeggiated acoustic guitars of “The Field,” the album drips with baroque ornamentations which feel especially luxurious in a big live setting. The five piece band included longtime collaborators Tariq Al-Sabir on keys and bass, and Eva Tolkin and Ian Isiah on vocals. Dev himself was constantly moving between different instruments on stage, delivering blistering solos on guitar, keyboard, bass, and cello throughout the evening. My only critique of the show was an over-reliance on backing tracks to capture the sheer range of instrumentation in Blood Orange songs; from the twirling flute filigrees of “Vivid Light” to the wailing saxophone of “Chosen,” one or two more instrumentalists on stage could have made these moments that much more epic.
Watch the official music video for “The Field” by Blood Orange on YouTube:
Aside from the gorgeous sampling of new material, many of the highlights in the setlist mined the disco and funk inspirations of Blood Orange’s deep catalogue. These included fun renditions of “Never Good Enough” and 2016’s “Best To You” (which I personally consider to be one of the greatest pop songs of all time). We were also treated to two tracks from 2013 album Cupid Deluxe, which Hynes had not played live for over ten years. The seven minute song “Chosen” gently builds from a sweet-as-molasses bass groove, and shone the spotlight on Isiah and Tolkin’s vocal chemistry in the coda’s longing repetition of “Baby let me take you home.” And then there was “Uncle ACE,” whose Byrne-esque high life guitar licks whipped the crowd into a dancing frenzy as the song reached its crescendo.
Despite these propulsive moments, Hynes’s demeanor suggested an artist enjoying a moment of midcareer introspection and quiet contemplation. After playing 2011 sexy sad jam “Champagne Coast” (whose recent resurgence on Tik Tok explains the number of young fans at the gig), Hynes told the audience that his visit to Children’s National Hospital earlier that day had reminded him to “always appreciate the life you have.” He then closed with two songs from Essex Honey, lead single “The Field” and the meditative closing number “I Can Go.” Eschewing drums entirely, the song repeated the title like a mantra over gentle guitar and keys. After making us dance, sweat, and cry, Blood Orange sent us home with a beautiful moment of stillness. There was no encore.
