Cupid Deluxe
Singer, songwriter, and producer Dev Hynes’ follow-up to *Coastal Grooves* is a mix of hazy electronica, treading bass lines, and waves of stirring Prince-inspired vocals. From the stark midtempo rapping on “Clipped On” to the blog-buzzing harmonies of “Chamakay,” *Cupid Deluxe* is dimensional, hypnotizing, and amorphous. With contributors ranging from Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek to Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors, *Cupid Deluxe* is a distinct and mesmerizing album that proves Hynes is as talented at a soundboard as at a microphone.
Cupid Deluxe is the follow up to Devonté Hynes’ debut as Blood Orange, 2011’s Coastal Grooves. Since that album’s release, Hynes has written and produced music for the likes of Solange, Sky Ferreira, MKS, and more. Cupid Deluxe shows a more expansive aural palate than its predecessor while retaining the pop sensibilities that Hynes has showcased since his days in Test Icicles and Lightspeed Champion. Simply put, Cupid Deluxe perfectly highlights why Hynes has become one of the most exhilarating and prolific voices creating music right now. The album was produced by Hynes in his adopted hometown of New York City, mixed by Jimmy Douglass, and features amazing guest appearances by David Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), Samantha Urbani (Friends), Clams Casino, Despot, Adam Bainbridge (Kindness), Skepta and many more.
On his second collection of melancholic 80s-inspired pop odes, the 27-year-old singer/songwriter/producer Devonté Hynes, aka Blood Orange, channels vagabond emotions into something universal and inviting. His Cupid Deluxe is an album that tenderly details heartbreak through the language of longing.
Dev Hynes' take on a fashionable sound makes for possibly his finest full-length yet.
The follow-up to the New York-based producer’s ‘Coastal Grooves’ in 2011, ‘Cupid Deluxe’ features a crew of his hipster mates, including Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth, Friends’ Samantha Urbani, Clams Casino, Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek and Kindness, who help unpick attitudinal ’80s R&B, smoove shoulder-pad soul and ’70s soft rock licks and put it back together in his lo-fi image.
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Blood Orange is his current project, and one that has helped him discover his calling as a producer of contemporary R&B.In 2011, he began to lay it out with his first LP, Coastal Grooves, an overlooked album that gets better with time and acted as a sketch for what was yet to come.
Cupid Deluxe finds singer/songwriter/producer Dev Hynes back under the name Blood Orange, following his 2011 debut with this moniker, Coastal Grooves, and two albums as Lightspeed Champion.
<p>Shape-shifting producer-musician Dev Hynes's second outing as Blood Orange sees him defining his sound, writes <strong>Killian Fox</strong></p>
Blood Orange’s sophomore effort details a chronicle of alienation and broken romance with slow, melancholic, ’90s-gazing jams.
Dev Hynes has blown up since he released his last album as Blood Orange, 2011's Coastal Grooves.
Review Of "Cupid Deluxe" By Blood Orange by Evan McDowell. "Cupid Deluxe" comes out 11/18 via Domino Records. The latest single is "Your Not Good Enough".
Slick on the surface but complex underneath, this mellifluous and relaxed album is Hynes' most impressive yet, writes <strong>Maddy Costa</strong>
Beginning with the same pairing of sun-kissed melodies and post-punk atmospherics that lined 2011’s Coastal Grooves, his first under LP under the Blood Orange alias, Hynes utilizes a much finer brush to amplify the character of Cupid Deluxe.
Cupid DeluxeArtist: Blood OrangeGenre: RockLabel: DominoDev Hynes has always been a creative force, and his recent prolific streak has only elevated his profile.
Dev Hynes's path of artistic development is one of the most pleasing in 21st century music. The flamboyant black indie-kid risking life and limb to ride the local buses growing up in Hackney, who channeled his frustration at the lack of a place for him in the world through the awkward, aggro, occasionally inspiring but awfully named early 2000s electro-punk trio Test Icicles, has since then through sheer force of will carved out a space within the music world where he can be himself.