Who The FUCK Is Dev Hynes?

I’m so glad you asked! As someone who loves Dev Hynes‘ contributions to the greater musical world, I feel qualified to inform you about his existence as a human being (if you aren’t already amazing and aware of his work). The British musician, currently living in New York, has collaborated on tunes for Florence Welch, The Chemical Brothers, Lana Del Rey and Sky Ferreira. He was slated to work on Britney Spears‘ new project Britney Jean, but unfortunately, executive producer will.i.am was too dumb to accept any of his songs.

Of course, the fact that Britney’s people were even calling him likely had something to do with Hynes’ involvement on Solange Knowles‘ 2012 release True. The seven-track EP brought us “Losing You“, which was hailed by music critics and yours truly as one of last year’s greatest songs. Not to mention that it provided the soundtrack for this ridiculously hot video…

While Solange is busy posing in front of a custom-designed Lamborghini Murcielago to promote her new Saint Heron compilation, her pal Dev has gone ahead and released Cupid Deluxe, his second solo album under the moniker Blood Orange. (I specify, since he’s previously released two albums as Lightspeed Champion.)

The project features vocals by his girlfriend, Samantha Urbani of Friends, as well as Caroline Polachek of Chairlift, David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors and indie rapper Despot. That’s a long list of names of people you may or may not care about, so let’s simplify everything by saying this is a great, chill album with R&B, rock, electronic and pop influences. I’d argue that it occasionally reaches a level of musical genius akin to Prince, but that might be giving it too much credit? Unclear!

– Dewitt

Photo credit: Philippe Vogelenzang

Listen to the Cupid Deluxe tracks “You’re Not Good Enough” and “Time Will Tell” below: