Blood Orange

One Liner: Bummer R&B crooner over down-tempo synth beats

Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, baroque pop, folk, contemporary R&B, jazz, new wave, soul, electronic (that is a LOT of different genres, man)
Home: London

Poster Position: 8
Day: Saturday at 5:30
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: FYI, the three most common types of blood oranges are the 'Tarocco' (native to Italy), the 'Sanguinello' (native to Spain), and the 'Moro', the newest variety of the three, although Wikipedia doesn't provide its native zone, which I find disappointing.  I'll say it is from London, like this dude.

Let's run through a quick name game on this guy: 
Born: David Joseph Michael Hynes
Goes By: Devonté Hynes
But Really Goes By: Dev Hynes
Formerly Performed As: Lightspeed Champion
Now Performs As: Blood Orange.
Before Either of Those, was a Member of: Test Icicles.  Which was apparently a band.  With an awesome name.  That released an album in 2005.

These tunes are like someone took a bet that they had to simply use the basic presets on a fancy keyboard as the backing music for a successful musician.  There are a few flourishes otherwise, but this is very low key, kinda funky, electronic synth stuff for this guy to sing over.  He's gotten a ton of good press and critical recognition, but it misses the mark for me.

Here is my review of his 2016 album Freetown Sound, where I lamented the fact that I spent the time listening to it.  Pitchfork loved it, giving it a Best New Music sticker and ranking it a 8.8.  Similarly, I was not in to 2013's Coastal Deluxe.  Pitchfork said that was a Best New Album and gave it 8.5.

His new album, Negro Swan, likewise passes me by.  He's got a nice voice.  His lyrics can be interesting.  But the music is just boring for me - I don't hear anything on here that I makes me look up from my work and need to listen more closely.  Meanwhile Metacritic has it at Universal Acclaim and and 83 out of 100, with a perfect score from NME.  Well, OK.  A perfect album?  Really?  The top track, with 2.2 million streams, is "Charcoal Baby."

Huh.  Comments are disabled for that video on YouTube.  Can't recall the last time I saw a popular song that didn't allow comments.  The guitar in that song is weird, it reminds me of something else I've heard recently.  Some sleepy indie singer, like Mac Demarco or something?  Its like out of tune while still being in tune?  What is that?  Lyrically, he pretty much just repeats that no one wants to be the odd one out all the time, and then asks repeatedly if you can break sometimes.  I don't know man, sure, go ahead and break?  Go for it.  While I can dig the sentiment of wanting to be accepted more often, and not be treated like the "black swan," maybe you could spend like 5 minutes writing lyrics that would reflect a story about that, or something more personal than just repeating the same thought over and over?

His most streamed tune comes from that 2013 album.  "You're Not Good Enough," another feel great anthem (not), has 22.7 million streams.

The bass is at least funky and cool in this one, instead of it just being a synth on rhythm #9.  Kind of a Prince vibe on that one.  "I never was in love, You know that you were never good enough."  That's a pretty cold ass burn.  Comments also disabled on that video.  What happened to this guy with comments?

Here's a weird note from the Wikipedia page: "Hynes contributed music to the 2010 film MacGruber, including the duet "Rock My Body" with Saturday Night Live cast member Kristen Wiig."  Let's check that one out.

Man.  I mean, I'm fully aware that Macgruber was a silly movie intended to be a caricature, but that blows.  And unfortunately, reminds me of the synths he used in his new album.

I'm super glad that the critics love this guy, and I hope that he gets a bunch of money so that he can find happiness, but I don't plan to go to the group therapy session.