Angel's Pulse

While the mixtape is clearly still rooted in the world of ‘Negro Swan’, ‘Angel’s Pulse’ proves that sticking around in older ground for a little longer can still bear some sweet fruit.

The first four tracks and ‘Take It Back’ are some of his strongest so far. It’s a gratifying epilogue to last year’s effort.

It’s the type of collection that most artists would hope to release as a bona fide album.

There are enough genres and enough textures in here for everyone. No prejudice, no pain; just sounds.

If anything, Angel’s Pulse represents an intermission-an “escape” from the darkness if you will. Which, is maybe something all of us need after these last four years.

Angel's Pulse is reminiscent of soup. A thick soup. A lot of these tracks feel directionless, monotonous, or like scraps. But still, there's something that makes you want to enter them.

Flow is minimal, consequently making it come off like a hurried dub for an unplanned ride.

More than pointing the way forward, Angel's Pulse seems to be closing the door on this phase of Hynes' creative journey. No mere addendum, it lives up to the high bar set by Hynes, while giving us a small, but significant, glimpse into his process.

To get to the good stuff takes a degree of patience and involves a route that passes through a fair amount of noodly self-indulgence.

There are quite a few good ideas on Angel's Pulse; unfortunately they aren't fleshed out enough, nor do they reinforce one another.

This is a lounge-y mixtape that drifts comfortably within Hynes’s beautiful sonic realm.

It's clear from this mix-tape that Hynes is bursting with concepts, but in a rare misstep he lacks the finesse that's usually found on a Blood Orange record. Perhaps this is a list of B-sides after all; tracks that were better left on the cutting room floor.

This is Hynes’ song-diary, filled to the margins with prototypes he might fashion into hits one day. But for the time being, his vault is a slog.