Blood Orange on Vinyl: Where to Start and Where to Go Next

Devonté Hynes has had more careers than most musicians get. He was the guitarist in Test Icicles, the London band that burned through one album and split in 2006. He was Lightspeed Champion, the folk-leaning solo project that took him to Omaha, Nebraska to record with Mike Mogis in 2007. He moved to New York that same year, and by 2009 he was playing shows under a new name that stuck.

It stuck because it gave him room to do everything at once. Born in East London to a Guyanese mother and a Sierra Leonean father, raised in Essex, Hynes writes records that hold 1980s New York nightlife, British post-punk guitar and quiet-storm R&B in the same three minutes, and he plays most of the parts himself. He is also one of the more quietly influential songwriters of the last fifteen years: he co-wrote and co-produced all of Solange's True EP, wrote Sky Ferreira's "Everything Is Embarrassing" with Ariel Rechtshaid, and has credits with FKA twigs, Carly Rae Jepsen, Blondie, HAIM and Mariah Carey. He scores films too, among them Gia Coppola's Palo Alto, Melina Matsoukas's Queen & Slim and Rebecca Hall's Passing, and he has written for the concert hall: Fields, performed by Third Coast Percussion, came out on Cedille Records in 2019.

We carry six Blood Orange records. Here is how they fit together.

Coastal Grooves - The Debut That Set the Template

Coastal Grooves arrived on Domino in August 2011 and is the only Blood Orange album Hynes did not produce himself: Ariel Rechtshaid handled it, with Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass and Garrett Ray on drums. The record is built on thin, reverbed guitar and drum machines, and it is dedicated to the memory of Octavia St. Laurent. "Champagne Coast," "Sutphin Boulevard" and "Forget It" are the entry points, and it still sounds like a night walk through a city he had only just moved to. If the guitar tone is what pulls you, our new wave starter guide covers what it descends from.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The Blood Orange sound before the guest lists got long: one voice, one guitar, a drum machine.
• Rechtshaid's production makes it the outlier in the catalog, and collectors treat it that way.
• "Champagne Coast" found a whole second audience online in 2024, fifteen years after he wrote it.

Cupid Deluxe - The New York Record

Cupid Deluxe came out on Domino in November 2013, self-produced, and it is where Hynes started treating the album as a room full of people. Caroline Polachek, David Longstreth, Samantha Urbani, Skepta, Despot, Clams Casino, Adam Bainbridge and Tawiah all turn up. Hynes called it a record about transitions, made while he was moving from Brooklyn into Manhattan. "Chamakay," "You're Not Good Enough" and "Time Will Tell" were the singles, and the saxophone and slap bass are why people still reach for this one first.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The most immediately likeable record here, and the usual first Blood Orange purchase.
• A guest list that doubles as a map of early-2010s New York, from Dirty Projectors to Skepta.
• Self-produced, and the first record that is fully his own arrangement work.

Freetown Sound - The Ambitious One

Freetown Sound appeared in June 2016 with the physical release following that August, produced by Hynes with Adam Bainbridge and Patrick Wimberly. The title points to Freetown, Sierra Leone, his father's birthplace, and the record threads spoken word and found audio between songs into something closer to a collage than a tracklist. Debbie Harry, Nelly Furtado, Carly Rae Jepsen, Empress Of and Kelsey Lu appear. "Augustine," "Hadron Collider" and "Better Than Me" carry the melody.

Why it's worth purchasing

• His most structurally ambitious album, and the one that rewards sitting with both sides in order.
• The guest pairings are genuinely strange in the best way: Debbie Harry and Carly Rae Jepsen on the same record.
• The interludes do real work between songs, which is the sort of thing vinyl sequencing was made for.

Negro Swan - The Heaviest Listen

Negro Swan came out on Domino in August 2018, self-produced, with Janet Mock narrating across the record. Hynes described it as an exploration of Black depression and of the anxieties of queer people and people of color, and the music matches: slower, softer at the edges, built on jazz guitar voicings and space. A$AP Rocky, Project Pat, Ian Isiah, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Steve Lacy all contribute. "Charcoal Baby," "Jewelry" and "Hope" are the singles.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The most emotionally direct album he has made, and the one people return to most.
• Mock's narration makes it play as one continuous piece rather than a set of songs.
• Guitar playing that leans closer to jazz than anything else in the catalog.

Angel's Pulse - The Mixtape Companion

Angel's Pulse followed less than a year after Negro Swan, released digitally in July 2019 with physical copies that October on Domino. Hynes framed it as a mixtape rather than a studio album, and it moves like one: short tracks, abrupt turns, ideas left unfinished on purpose. Toro y Moi, Kelsey Lu, Ian Isiah, Justine Skye, Project Pat, Gangsta Boo, Tinashe, Porches, Arca and Joba pass through. "Benzo" and "Dark & Handsome" were the singles.

Why it's worth purchasing

• The loosest, most playful thing here, and a good corrective if Negro Swan felt heavy.
• Pressed as a mixtape rather than an album, so the sequencing rewards dropping the needle anywhere.
• A guest list running from Memphis rap to Arca, which tells you how wide his address book goes.

Essex Honey - The Return

Essex Honey arrived on RCA in August 2025, fourteen tracks, self-produced, his first full-length studio album in the seven years since Negro Swan. It is a record about grief and about the Essex of his childhood, written around his mother's illness and her death in 2023, with Elliott Smith and The Replacements named as touchstones. Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, Brendan Yates of Turnstile, Ben Watt, Tirzah, The Durutti Column, Ian Isiah and Charlotte Dos Santos all appear. "The Field," "Mind Loaded" and "Countryside" led it, and this pressing is cut at 45 RPM.

Why it's worth purchasing

• A 45 RPM cut, which gives the guitars and the layered vocals more room than a standard pressing would.
• The clearest songwriting of his career, with the arrangements pulled back to let the words carry.
• Seven years between studio albums, so this is the one to have while the first pressing is current.

If You Like Blood Orange

Five of the six records above point to the same handful of names, and we carry all of them.

• Solange: Hynes co-wrote and co-produced her True EP, and A Seat at the Table is the closest thing to a companion piece to Freetown Sound.
• Toro y Moi: Chaz Bear appears on Angel's Pulse, and the catalog runs the same line between bedroom production and full-band soul.
• Steve Lacy: contributed to Negro Swan and works the same way, writing, producing and playing nearly everything himself.
• Sampha: another British songwriter working in the quiet, piano-forward corner of R&B, and a natural next step after Negro Swan.
• The Internet: the band Steve Lacy came up in, and the most band-like version of this.

Where to Start

Start with Cupid Deluxe if you want the songs, Negro Swan if you want the mood, and Essex Honey if you want to hear where he is now. Under his own name we also carry Devonté Hynes - Mainstream (Original Score), his music for Gia Coppola's film. From there, our R&B and New Wave collections cover both halves of what he draws on. Everything we stock by him lives in one place, in the Blood Orange collection.