By Farah Šertović

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:: Farah takes a trip through Essex Honey

:: September 24, 2025

:: Dev Hynes has always blurred the lines between intimacy and experimentation, but Essex Honey, his first full-length album in six years, feels like his most vulnerable statement yet. At its core, the album is about grief and memory, dressed in rhythms that invite you to dance even as the words land heavy.

Take “Thinking Clean,” where the refrain “I don’t want to be here anymore” collides with a bright, skipping beat. The contrast doesn’t trivialize this pain. Instead, it reframes it, showing how movement could be a form of survival and freedom. That same alchemy drives “The Field,” an exhilarating rush of rhythm and voice layers that channels the feelings of finally processing loss.

Not every track leans on tempo. “Somewhere in Between” breaks open with an emotional string passage, exposing the album’s rawest moments of hopelessness. Collaborators like Lorde, Caroline Polachek, and Mustafa never steal the spotlight. They arrive as a supportive presence; their voices weave gently into Hynes’ meditations on absence and love.

The power of Essex Honey lies in its refusal to separate joy from sorrow. Even when lyrics circle around death, departure, or fractured selfhood, the music insists on connection, on catharsis through motion. It’s not an easy record, but it is a beautiful one—proof that sometimes the best way to grieve is to keep moving, even if it’s only to a flicker of a beat. 

Standout tracks: “Thinking Clean,” “The Field,” and “Somewhere in Between.”

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