Angel’s Pulse

Angel’s Pulse, meanwhile, is a brisk 32-minute mixtape of mostly-minor-key ideas that finds Blood Orange creatively expanding the possibilities – and dangers – of Alternative R&B. Angel’s Pulse has deepened my interest in Dev Hynes, despite the extremely non-interesting Freetown Sound Hynes’s last LP proper was, despite my fond thoughts on his Blood Orange persona waxing and waning whenever the commercial imperatives led me to his oeuvre via whatever wealthy, white, and Hollywood-attached person he was collaborating with this month. That album, Freetown Sound (2017), fumbled ambitiously yet lucidly between very symbolic stages of Blackquity – ‘Shadows’, ‘June 19th’, ‘Best to You’ – when, with Angel’s Pulse, Blood Orange’s headspace seems conceptually expanded and creatively curious. Angel’s Pulse rarely lingers on a single idea for longer than three minutes: the two crescendos of ‘Gold Teeth’ and ‘Take It Back’, which bookend a chilled-out blend of BennY RevivaL rapping on the phone over neo-soul feelers, are the only ones that come close. Blood Orange probably isn’t trying to say anything new on his mixtape, beyond ‘Here’s something now.’ But, tone is ephemeral in modern music and Angel’s Pulse gleams with a vibe more than any one moment of each track. The mood of Birmingham, the Neo-Soul opener created with Diana Gordon, is reclaimed on the Experimental Hip-Hop of ‘Seven Hours Part 1’ (BennY RevivaL’s phone call) turned eerie by the gloves and washboard scrub of ‘Forget It’. The features charge the project with a range of voices and moods that, as a result, doesn’t build the instant nostalgic potency of Freetown Sound. The best tracks, not coincidentally, feature females vocalists who both wax over mellow hip‑hop horns, Here, on ‘Time Will Tell’ and ‘AKA DB Cooper’, Nothing Great About Britain’, enough that she staffs the project with other singer-songwriters who wring the best vocal performances out of every minute. Meanwhile, the hard emcees carve out some of Angel’s Pulse’s only thrilling moments, whether seasoned (Project Pat givin’ Memphis Rap on ‘Gold Teeth’) or fresh-faced (Joba sussing out the future on ‘Take It Back’). None of which can compare to the slightly scooped chorus of ‘Benzo’, where blissed-out harmonies and sparse percussion cast a few seconds in light.

BLOOD ORANGE - Angel’s Pulse

RATING - 8.2/10

FAVORITE TRACKS - Gold Teeth, Berlin, I Wanna C U

GENRE - Alternative/Indie, UK R&B