Blood Orange Announces New Album, the Hopeful Negro Swan

Devonté Hynes is back with new music as Blood Orange—his second stage name, having formerly released music as Lightspeed Champion. Hynes’ forthcoming album Negro Swan is due out on Domino Records Aug. 24. The fourth Blood Orange record, Negro Swan follows the 2016 album Freetown Sound, which Paste ranked as having one of the 25 best album covers of 2016.

Hynes most recently released two tracks as Blood Orange in February for Black History Month. “Christoper & 6th” and “June 12th” make up the aptly named Black History single. Known for his personal narratives about living as a black man in America, Hynes’ forthcoming album will be thematically similar:

My newest album is 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. [It’s] 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.

Check out a performance by Blood Orange from the Paste archives below. Hynes is heading on tour this fall in support of Negro Swan, and you can find all his scheduled show dates further down below. You can preorder his new album here.