The record is Dev Hyne’s first release in three years
Dev Hynes / Blood Orange has released his first new music since 2019. The EP, titled Four Songs, was written and produced by Hynes himself, and features collaborations with Ian Isaiah, Eva Tolkin and Erika de Casier. I'll leave you to guess how many songs it has.
Throughout the 2010s, Hynes established himself as one of the most acclaimed songwriters and sought-after producers in the music industry. Alongside his own albums, he has produced tracks for an impressive array of stars, including Sky Ferreira (he produced her breakout hit “Everything is Embarrassing”), Solange, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kylie Monogue and FKA Twigs.
Since his last release, 2019’s mixtape Angel Pulse, Hynes has been focused on writing soundtracks and scoring films and TV: he has worked on Luca Guadagnino's We Are Who We Are; Gia Coppolla’s 2020 film Mainstream, A24’s road movie Queen and Slim, HBO Drama series In Treatment, and a Netflix documentary about tennis player Naomi Osaka. In 2021, he received a Grammy nomination for “Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance” for Fields, a classical musical collaboration which was performed by Third Coast Production.
Four Songs feels like vintage Blood Orange: downbeat, sultry, sharply produced and a little melancholy in parts. Hynes has recently been supporting Harry Styles on his 15-show run at New York’s Madison Square Gardens, which suggests his hiatus from public life has come to an end. Back in 2020, he said that a new full-length album was already completed, so watch this space.
Listen to all four of the new tracks below.