Blood Orange’s "Essex Honey" is One of the Best Albums of 2025

8:59 AM EDT on May 29, 2026

Last summer, Blood Orange released Essex Honey , his first proper album in seven years. It's awesome, and it's on our list of the best albums of 2025 . Since, then Dev Hynes and his collaborators have played a bunch of festivals, toured with collaborators Lorde and Turnstile, and covered the Smiths and Coldplay . Today, we get a new Blood Orange single with a title very similar to Essex Honey .

Like many of the tracks on Essex Honey , Blood Orange's new single "Essex_Honey.mp3" is a woozy meditation set to a fired-up old-school rave beat. The song sounds like it's trapped in hazy memory, and it's deeply rooted in the history of the Blood Orange project. It prominently samples Sky Ferreira's 2013 single " Everything Is Embarrassing ." Dev Hynes co-wrote that song, and it's one of the tracks that first brought attention to the Blood Orange project. Below, check out "Essex_Honey.mp3" and Blood Orange's upcoming tour dates.

TOUR DATES: 05/30 - Warsaw, Poland @ Orange Warsaw 06/02 - Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera A La Ciutat 2026 06/04 - Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound Festival 06/06 - Queens, NY @ Governors Ball Music Festival 06/12 - Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival 07/29 - Chicago, IL @ House of Blues Chicago 07/30 - Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza 08/13 - Oslo, Norway @ Øya Festival 08/14 - Gothenburg, Sweden @ Way Out West 08/15 - København Sv, Denmark @ Syd For Solen 08/18 - Hamburg, Germany @ OFF Days 08/19 - Berlin, Germany @ OFF Days 08/21 - Biddinghuizen, Netherlands @ Lowlands Festival 08/23 - Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop Festival 08/25 - Zürich, Switzerland @ Komplex AG 08/26 - Wien, Austria @ Arena Vienna 08/29 - London, UK @ Rally 09/03 - Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre 09/04 - Troutdale, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield 09/05 - Seattle, WA @ Bumbershoot 09/09 - San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield 09/19 - Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees 10/04 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival 10/09 - Mayer, AZ @ Arcosanti 10/11 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival

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_Originally reported by [Stereogum](https://stereogum.com/2500565/blood-orange-essex_honey-mp3/music/)._