Album review: Blood Orange Cupid Deluxe (Domino)

A few years ago, Devonté Hynes was Lightspeed Champion, working with Van Dyke Parks on the baroque-pop follies of Bye Bye; now he's reinvented himself again as soft-soul auteur Blood Orange. "Chamakay" presents him at his best: an oozing dub-soul groove pockmarked with marimba, and Hynes's hushed, intimate vocal echoed by the ecstatic melisma of Caroline Polachek. It's like The Weeknd with a better attitude towards romance – though that's soon betrayed, as the next track admits, "I never was in love, you know that you were never good enough". Sometimes it suffers from Prince-like micromanagement, but when it succeeds, it's blissful: the retro-disco cut "Uncle ACE" wouldn't sound out of place, or outclassed, on that Daft Punk LP.

Download: Chamakay; You're Not Good Enough; Uncle ACE; Chosen