Arts & Culture
Spinning Singles: Blood Orange, “Sandra’s Smile”
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By JESSIE WEBER
Mid August, Sybrina Fulton gave an open and deeply insightful interview regarding both her son’s murder over three years ago and America’s continually strained racial divides. Dev Hynes, or Blood Orange, as most would recognize him, read through the transcript. Over this weekend, he released a new single, “Sandra’s Smile,” addressing the grief that still sits with the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice and many, many others. Hynes wrote most of the lyrics on a single page in a small notebook before adding ethereal background singers and a mournful saxophone, with his evolving looped beats making repeated cameos throughout. In his typical way, “Sandra’s Smile” flits from one sound to another, beginning soulfully before waxing jazzy with a tint of new wave.