Fifty Greatest Records of This Year: The Third Spot – Dev Hynes: A Record of Grief
The year's most notable albums are filled with a feeling of grief. Considering the definitive and dismal split with government accountability, defenses of minority groups, and the encroachment of AI into creative fields, this musical preoccupation is not unexpected. While artists like one acclaimed artist and Rosalía sought elevation, and acts like Bad Bunny and an innovative producer created resistance anthems, Dev Hynes offers a profoundly individual contemplation on bereavement.
An Intimate Exploration of Bereavement
His fifth album as his musical alias seems particularly attuned to the fragmented, distracted mental landscape that follows the death of a loved one. Called Essex Honey, its restive character is encapsulated in its aching introductory lyrics. These lyrics could be read as contrasting the departing's peace with the living's difficulty to understand it: “By your grace, I searched for some meaning,” he vocalizes. “But I found none, and I persist in hunting for a truth.”
“Each track is shrouded in a wistful light, and progresses the way the consciousness does.”
Artistic Worlds of Searching
This exploration is far-flung. The collection reinterprets a classic post-punk tune into a driving anthem. On other tracks, tough angular rock songs are charged with frustration. An openly heartfelt pairing contrasts languid, flute-dappled groove. Hynes' focus shifts even within single tracks, repeatedly to unsettling effect. Without warning, a breakbeat will burst in and stir up silky strings.
- Vivid Light: Boasts a partnership with a renowned author.
- Thinking Clean: Starts with short pleas and stilted piano before spinning off into gorgeous four-on-the-floor rhythm.
- Common Threads: Dramatic cello motifs appear again over the album, like surprising shocks back to anguish.
Organic Beauty
Upon surrendering to immerse you, Essex Honey flows like elements playing through a window. Despite all its harsh differences, it feels strikingly organic. This is achieved not only through grounding touches of field recordings—bird calls, TV samples, family talk—but due to the artist's mastery as an composer. Melodies somehow sound both accidental and perfectly executed.
A Community of Voices
Hynes seldom voice tracks by himself. The album's notable list of features is a proof of a Rolodex developed over a long career in the scene. Yet these singers are not deployed ostentatiously; they act more like individual threads in a beautifully lived-in tapestry, acting as support and to express bleak emotions.
- A recurring voice: Provides an angelic quality with a pristine voice.
- Another notable appearance: Uses a youthful grain to portray someone fraying at the edges.
- Vocal interplay: Sees the lead artist's deep voice mirroring the guest's, akin to an dark presence validating deepest anxieties.
The Concluding Realization
This work brushes up against a specific philosophy: when the most terrible thing has occurred, what is the point of something matter? The lyricist's impressionistic verses repeatedly return the past, clinging to memories. He came close to not releasing the album, doubting its point. A recognition of good luck—the opportunity to offer creation with an audience—altered its purpose. The last track ends with a echo of the initial words, representing a surrender to the unchangeable. The stunning and intuitive album documents the experience of a world reconfigured, mapping its painful new contours with grace.
