Secret Meeting score: 87

by Philip Moss

After a rumble of New York street noise, Orlando opens with a flutter of funky guitars and strutting drums. But the lyrical content is not so upbeat –‘Sixteen-year-old boy / To feel so numb that it’s deafening, walls’ll give in / After school, sucker punched down / Down and out / First kiss was the floor’. It’s these tales of childhood angst, not fitting in and being a man of colour who doesn’t confirm to society’s defined roles of sexuality that can be traced right the way through Negro Swan – Devonte Hynes’ new record under his alias of some seven years.

Unlike the isolated vocal on the opener, Saint is a awash with voices as Aaron Maine, BEA1991, Adam Bainbridge and Dev himself all take turns singing the track’s refrain –‘Your skin’s a flag that shines for us all / You said it before / The brown that shines and lights your darkest thoughts’. While Dagenham Dream covers the escapism that skateboarding brought after repeatedly finding himself with ‘broken teeth and a bloody nose’.

Like one of last year’s best crossover hip hop records – King Krule’s The Ooz – Negro Swan twists and turns like a mixtape with eclecticism at its heart. The folk strums of Runnin’ sit alongside the wide-eyed eighties’ production of the Tame Impala-esque, Out Of Your League. 

Other great moments come when Hynes calls on his famous friends. Transgender activist, Janet Mock, plays the part of the album’s narrator, offering spoken word on five tracks including standout, Family. But where one famous guest works on Hope – which sees Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, deliver poignant verse – the same cannot be said for Chewing Gum, which is a misstep. Ironically, it features the record’s biggest, most commercial star, A$AP Rocky. But despite being melodically strong, it feels like a huge pile of hip hop cliche, as Rocky drops a salvo of unnecessary expletives that neither fit the album’s overarching concept or its carefully considered, thematic values.

In many ways, Negro Swan is the most fully realised demonstration of Hynes’ DIY ideals – bedroom pop drum machines hold down busker’s saxophones, seemingly captured rattling through New York’s Metro tunnels on tracks that are sprinkled with dreamy melodies. It’s not a perfect record – but, in many ways, that makes it even more special.

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