Devonté Hynes’ return as Blood Orange follows a period of relative quiet (his last studio album, Negro Swan, came out in 2019) in which his status has nonetheless ballooned. As well as having his old classic “Uncle Ace” synced in a memorable Challengers scene, Hynes has essayed further into classical music, whose form and texture color the eclectic borders of new album Essex Honey. Joining him for the indie-pop odyssey is an armada of guests: Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates, Ian Isiah, Tirzah, Amandla Stenberg, and Zadie Smith, among others.
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The Beths: Straight Line Was a Lie [Anti-]
“I thought I was getting better, but I’m back to where I started,” the Beths singer Elizabeth Stoke admits when opening the band’s first album in three years. After feeling frustrated by songwriting stall-outs and the nonlinear trajectory of life’s highs and lows, the Beths learned that creativity can’t be lost; you just need to find alternate pathways to it sometimes—hence the album’s title, Straight Line Was a Lie. From the ironic thrills of “No Joy” to the confessional “Mother, Pray for Me,” the New Zealand indie-rockers find their groove again after the surreal feeling of breaking out with 2022’s Expert in a Dying Field.
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