‘Grief England youth & music’ is emblazoned on the t-shirts sold at the merch stall in the foyer of Alexandra Palace. If you don’t want to read the rest of this piece, the t-shirt works as a pithy, to-the-point review of Essex Honey, Dev Hynes’s fifth studio album as Blood Orange. It’s a record that saw Hynes journey to his childhood home of Ilford - just 11 miles from tonight’s venue - to reckon with grief and memory after the loss of his mother.
The record is a brilliant, heart-rending exploration of his childhood and growing up in Essex, the music jumping between past and present, filled with both joy and sorrow. The songs feel not only like a processing of death, but also a celebration of life - the sadness and loss alchemised into a kind of hope.
