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.