If you don’t know him as Blood Orange, you might know him as Devonté or Dev Hynes. You might know him as Lightspeed Champion, one member of Test Icicles, or even by his birth name, David. To Florence Welch, he’s one half of Team Perfect (more on that later). Hynes has lived many lives under many guises, but the chord that connects them all is his sublime artistry.

Whilst his musical references include Bach, Blur, Sade and the Smiths, his encyclopaedic knowledge spans from orchestral symphonies, to hip-hop and heavy metal. Naturally, a man who has lived so many lives would have to be a wise one. But it’s also made him one of the most exciting artists of the past decade. More exciting still, is the release of his fifth studio album, Essex Honey, which lands today (August 29). 

Preceded by four equally haunting yet hopeful singles (“The Field”, “Mind Loaded”, “Somewhere in Between” and “Countryside”), the album is the parting gift of summer 2025, lulling us into autumm. Above all, the project is a homecoming for Hynes. Taking its name from the English county in which he grew up, the album explores themes of British identity and self-discovery, and queries the meaning of life. Its powerful sense of nostalgia and emotion feels particularly poignant knowing that Hynes himself was grieving the death of his mother while writing it.

Not only is he taking us to his hometown, he’s brought Lorde, Zadie Smith, Daniel Ceasar, Caroline Polachek, Tirzah, and Mustafa along with him. But these illustrious features never detract from Hynes himself. The record a delicately curated stream of consciousness that gives us more insight to the man behind Blood Orange than ever before.

It’s unlikely that you’re new to Hynes’ music, this is his fifth album after all. But for those who think Essex Honey is their first introduction, there’s a high chance you'll have heard his work before without realising. No matter your taste in music, he will have dipped into your favourite genre at one point or another, having worked with artists from Kylie Minogue to Mac Miller. Below, we take a look back at some of the times you may not have realised you were listening to the sweet sounds of Blood Orange. 

SOLANGE – TRUE

OK, so maybe you did know you were listening to Hynes on this one. When it comes to his work with other artists, the first name that usually springs to mind is Solange. The pair first met in 2010 while Hynes was working with rapper Theophilus London, who suggested they meet. “I walked in and Dev was standing there, playing this beat, and it was like a lightbulb went off,” Solange explained in an interview at the time. “I thought, ‘That’s the sound I've been waiting for.’ I said to my boyfriend, ‘I’ve found the person I want to make my album with.’”

Hynes co-wrote and co-produced Solange’s True EP, which was released in 2012 and recorded meticulously over a two-year period. Interestingly, since he had just gone through a breakup, it’s more about Hynes’ own experiences in love than hers. Essentially, the OG Solange tracks we’ve grown to know and love (“Losing You”, “Some Things Never Seem to Fucking Work”, “Lovers In The Parking Lot”) are largely about Hynes’ heartbreak. He was also credited on both of Solange’s following albums, A Seat at the Table (2016) and When I Get Home (2019). 

DIANA VICKERS – SONGS FROM THE TAINTED CHERRY TREE

Now this one might be more of a surprise. Anyone who grew up in Britain in the late 00s watching The X Factor every Saturday night will remember Diana Vickers. She finished fourth place in the competition, losing to Alexandra Burke, JLS and Eoghan Quigg. But that didn’t stop Vickers’ debut album, Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree (2010), from going straight to number one in the UK. Was Hynes responsible for the hit single “Once”, I hear you ask? No. But he did co-produce the lesser known seventh track, “Me & You”.

SKY FERREIRA – GHOST

In 2012, during Tumblr’s golden age, Sky Ferreira released a five-track EP, Ghost, in place of her highly anticipated (and frequently delayed) debut album. The last track on the EP, “Everything Is Embarrassing”, was co-written and co-produced by Hynes, alongside Ferreira and Ariel Rechtshaid. Supposedly inspired by a failed relationship, it was Hynes who laid the foundations for the song – he sent Ferreira the demo after they met through mutual friends.

“I remember when he was in Test Icicles, when I met him,” explained Ferreira in a 2013 interview. “Dev sent me the idea, the first verse, but it was five minutes long and on loop. We just changed a few chords, added some lyrics and then it was kind of done.” Over a decade later, “Everything Is Embarrassing” remains Ferreira’s most streamed song by a mile. 

FKA twigs – LP1

In 2014, Hynes worked on FKA twigs’ debut album, LP1. Working alongside the likes of Sampha and Arca, who also have several credits on the album, Hynes co-wrote and co-produced the fourth track, “Hours“. Earlier this year, to mark the release of twigs’ Eusexua, Dazed ranked the singer’s albums from most to least alien, with LP1 taking the crown as the most otherworldly.

CARLY RAE JEPSEN – EMOTION

After the huge global success of Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2012 smash hit “Call Me Maybe”, the Canadian singer rebranded when it came to her third album, Emotion. “I’d be like, ‘I love that Solange song. Who did that? Oh, Dev Hynes did that,’ and so I’d email him,” explained Jepsen in 2015. It was from that email that “All That” was born, the second single from Emotion, co-produced by Hynes and Ariel Rechtshaid (the same dream duo behind Sky Ferreria’s “Everything Is Embarrassing”).

UNRELEASED BRITNEY SPEARS

At the end of 2013, Britney Spears released her eighth studio album, Britney Jean. The album’s producers included will.i.am and Sia, with tracks including “Work Bitch”. Notably, Hynes does not have a credit on the album. However, a few months after its release, two demos written by Hynes for Spears’ album were uploaded to SoundCloud – tracks that sadly never made the final cut. On Twitter (as it was known at the time), he wrote: “How do things even leak?? Oh well! Enjoy.” We’re still waiting for our official Britney x Blood Orange moment. 

PALO ALTO (2013)

In 2013, Dev Hynes scored his first full-length feature film for Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto. His hazy melancholic synths provided the perfect soundtrack to the coming-of-age teen drama, whilst opening up a whole new world for the artist. He went on to score 2019’s Queen & Slim, and was enlisted by Marni’s former creative director Francesco Risso to compose soundtracks for several of his fashion shows. 

SKINS (2011)

Before he was soundtracking films, Hynes’ songs were being played in the background of our favourite TV shows too. In 2011, MTV tried to recreate our beloved Bristol-based E4 teen series, Skins, which famously launched the careers of Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, Jack O’Connell, Kaya Scodelario and Hannah Murray. Of course, the American version could never live up to the grungy original, but the creators did use a British soundtrack to help it feel more authentic. They turned to Blood Orange, whose track “Sutphin Boulevard” was featured in the pilot episode. 

HARRY STYLES – HARRY’S HOUSE

Harry Styles once described Dev Hynes as “one of the most important artists of our generation”, so it’s no wonder he’s turned to Hynes multiple times over the past few years. While he doesn’t currently have any producer or writer credits on Styles’ projects, he did play cello on seven tracks from Harry’s House. Blood Orange even opened for Styles during his 2022 Love On Tour residency at Madison Square Garden, and before that, music directed and played bass during Styles’ 2021 Grammys performance of “Watermelon Sugar”.

A$AP ROCKY – TESTING

“Rocky is like a brother to me. We’ve gotten close over the last couple of years, I’d stay at his place when I was in LA,” said Hynes in 2019. The friends first began working together around 2018, when Blood Orange released “Chewing Gum” featuring A$AP Rocky, and when Hynes contributed to A$AP’s third studio album, Testing (Hynes produced 12th track, “Hun43rd”).

LORDE – VIRGIN

Earlier this year, Hynes became one of Lorde’s biggest champions when he was spotted taking a stroll through Washington Square Park carrying a portable speaker, blasting out the New Zealander’s then-unreleased music. Though he’s listed as a contributor on the album, Virgin was mostly produced by Jim-E Stack, with Hynes credited for playing cello, bass, synthesiser and electric guitar.

“I see how the pop landscape has changed since [Lorde] entered,” Hynes told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “I feel like post her success, production has been scaled back into quite a minimalistic place. It’s absolutely because of her.”

OTHER HONOURABLE MENTIONS 

This article could easily become a dissertation with everything that Blood Orange has been up to over the past two decades. We haven’t even unpacked his project with Florence Welch – together they called themselves Team Perfect and released covers of Green Day songs. Elsewhere, Hynes has produced/written for Kylie Minogue (“Crystallize”, 2014), Mac Miller (“Self Care”, 2018), Mariah Carey (“Giving Me Life”, 2018), Turnstile (“Alien Love Call”, 2021), Robyn and Neneh Cherry (“Buffalo Stance”, 2022), as well as having worked on two Tinashe projects. He’s even written alongside Debbie Harry (see Blondie’s “Long Time”). Harry Styles was right, Blood Orange is one of the most important artists of our generation.