Negro Swan
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''Negro Swan'' is the fourth studio album by
Blood Orange The blood orange is a variety of orange (fruit), orange with crimson, near blood-colored flesh. It is one of the sweet orange varieties (Citrus × sinensis, ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis''). It is also known as the raspberry orange. The dark flesh ...
, an alias of British musician Dev Hynes. It was released on 24 August 2018 by
Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...
. The album was preceded by the singles "Charcoal Baby" and "Jewelry".


Release and promotion

On 19 July 2018, Hynes shared a teaser video of the album featuring a snippet of new music, before announcing the album and making it available for pre-order later the same day. The cover art features an image of Kai the Black Angel sitting on a car's front window with a white do-rag on his head and wings clipped to his back. The album was released on 24 August 2018 through
Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...
. In a press release, Hynes described the album as "an exploration into my own and many types of black depression, an honest look at the corners of black existence, and the ongoing anxieties of queer/people of color. A reach back into childhood and modern traumas, and the things we do to get through it all. The underlying thread through each piece on the album is the idea of hope, and the lights we can try to turn on within ourselves with a hopefully positive outcome of helping others out of their darkness." The album focuses on these themes heavily in today's current ideals of gender and sexuality. Honesty is a very powerful tool in the production of the album because it is what bridges the gap between understanding viewpoints of oppressed groups. With songs like "Hope" and "Runnin" masculine influences are brought into analysis in order to create an understanding of how societal forces impact the ideals of sexuality. Each song on the album presses this issue with a mix of soul, R&B, and other genre's styles in order to convey a story of facing depression.The press release also stated that the album was entirely written and produced by Hynes. On 23 July, Hynes performed multiple tracks from the album at the
Pitchfork Music Festival Pitchfork Music Festival was an annual music festival in Union Park (Chicago), Union Park in Chicago, Illinois, organized by the online magazine ''Pitchfork (website), Pitchfork.'' Starting in 2011, the festival announced a branch staged in Paris ...
, including "Nappy Wonder" and "Charcoal Baby", the latter was released as the first single from the album on 26 July with a music video directed by Crack Stevens. Shortly afterwards, another single titled "Jewelry" was released, accompanied by a music video directed by Hynes, featuring an appearance from Janet Mock. In promotion of the album, Hynes embarked on a North American and European tour which began on 5 August at the
Osheaga Festival The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival () is a multi-day music festival in Montreal, Quebec, that is held every summer at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène. The festival takes place on six stages with various audience capacities. Translated ...
and ended on 8 November in
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.


Composition

''Swans 16 songs weave "impressionist" psychedelic pop and "interstellar"
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
together, as well as working in "cosy"
bedroom pop Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or music production, production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a delibe ...
. Due to Blood Orange's eclectic musical sounds, ''Swan'' also digs into
alternative pop Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
,
chillwave Chillwave (originally considered synonymous with glo-fi and hypnagogic pop) is a music microgenre that emerged in the late 2000s. It is characterized by evoking the popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s while engaging with notions of ...
,
dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such ...
, hip hop soul,
post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...
, quiet storm, R&B, indie hip-hop,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
, and more.


Critical reception

At
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, ''Negro Swan'' received an
average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 84, based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". David Sackllah of ''
Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...
'' stated that "''Negro Swan'' is a grand work that gives credit to the pioneers of the culture while building a path forward within that framework, placing Hynes firmly in the canon as one of the most insightful musicians of his generation." ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
''s Zachary Hoskins wrote, "It's this ability to capture both sides with equal commitment—the struggle and the resistance through self-love—that makes ''Negro Swan'' Hynes's most assured, accomplished, and significant album to date." ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' critic Jazz Monroe said "While ''Negro Swan'' elaborates on Hynes's best work, he remains grounded in cosy bedroom-pop by shambling drum machines, vocal compressors and gratuitous psych pedals." In the review for
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, writer Andy Kellman stated that the album, "qualifies as Hynes' most inward work, but it's a product of considerable interaction, whether the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is handing off ideas to Diddy on the Connected-era Foreign Exchange-like "Hope", trading primary instruments with the Internet's Steve Lacy on the swirling "Out of Your League", or leaving enough room on each track for up to four additional voices, including Kelsey Lu,
Amandla Stenberg Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress. She began her career as a child and received recognition for playing List of The Hunger Games characters#Rue, Rue in the action film ''The Hunger Games (film), The Hunger Games'' ( ...
, and Adam Bainbridge."


Accolades


Track listing

All tracks produced by Devonté Hynes.


Personnel

Credits adapted from ''Negro Swan'' album liner notes. * Devonté Hynes – vocals, production, guitar, bass, keyboards, saxophone, drums, drum programming, electronic wind instrument, piano, sampling, mixing, art direction * Janet Mock – narration * Ian Isiah – vocals *
Amandla Stenberg Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress. She began her career as a child and received recognition for playing List of The Hunger Games characters#Rue, Rue in the action film ''The Hunger Games (film), The Hunger Games'' ( ...
– vocals * BEA1991 – vocals * Ava Raiin – vocals * Adam Bainbridge – vocals * Aaron Maine – vocals * Tei Shi – vocals *
Puff Daddy Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, Combs worked as a ...
– vocals * Eva Tolkin – vocals * Zuri Marley – vocals * Fai Khadra – vocals *
ASAP Rocky Rakim Athelaston Mayers (born October 3, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Rocky ( ; stylized as A$AP Rocky), is an American rapper. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a member of the hip hop music, hip hop coll ...
– vocals *
Project Pat Patrick Earl Houston (born February 8, 1973), known professionally as Project Pat, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He is the older brother of Juicy J, the co-founder of Three 6 Mafia. Houston was formerly a member of the hip-hop ...
– vocals * Diana Gordon – vocals * Caroline Polachek - vocals * Kelsey Lu – vocals * Georgia Anne Muldrow – vocals * Steve Lacy – vocals , keyboards , drums * Marti – vocals * Andrew Aged – vocals , guitar * Austin Williamson (of Onyx Collective) – drums * Jason Arce – flute , saxophone * Mikey Freedom Hart – piano , guitar , keyboards * Ben Marino – drums * Malcolm – synthesizer * Rob Ackwood – guitar * Matthew Testa – recording * Zach Brown – mix engineering assistance * Mikaelin Bluespruce – mixing * Joe Visciano – mixing , additional mixing * Ana Kras – cover art * Matthew Cooper – design


Charts


Release history


References

{{Authority control 2018 albums Domino Recording Company albums Dev Hynes albums