Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange returns to showcase his creative impetus with Freetown Sound, the album that will certainly stand high on the year-end charts. Just as its precedents, Freetown Sound is basically a pop album experimentally upgraded with r’n’b, synthpop, funk and soul.
It is safe to say that Blood Orange’s third album presents him as an outstanding musician, even an iconoclast. Seventeen genius tracks are laced into a mellifluous concept that will take you on an hour long ride all the way to the utopia. Feel free to use this record as a form of escapism. Everyone who has been following this guy from Eastern London will notice that Freetown Sound is a giant leap after Coastal Grooves and Cupid Deluxe.
Titled after Freetown, the birth place of his father, the album is dedicated to anyone who has been discriminated due to the color of skin or sexual orientation. You can easily infer that there are not as much songs as I’m Sorry We Lied and You’re Not Good Enough.
The album deals with mature and serious ideas. His topics vary from race and religion to police brutality and political insensitivity towards marginalized groups. No matter how heavy the themes are, Dev creates a recognizable atmosphere that radiates a warm hope. It might be the highest quality of the album – Hynes is aware that the world is fucked up, but he rejects to plan revenge or seed hate. He invests his sublimination into love and he sends the message of peace.
Freetown Sound is full of small surprises and guest appearances. Slam poet Ashlee Haze opens the album with By Ourselves in which she confronts femininity and feminism. Love Ya samples the interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, known for his book Between The World And Me, adverting to the troubles of black man who doesn’t feel like he fits in the society.
With Him comprises cuts from documentary Black is…Black ain’t, while Desiree includes scenes from Paris is Burning. Best To You is a gorgeous soul number, and Augustine is dedicated to Dev’s parents. My favorite is Hadron Collider and I was shocked when I read that the female vocal belongs to Nelly Furtado. What’s also interesting is that Carly Rae Jepsen sings on Better Than Me.
The only flaw that I could find on the album is that Hynes is more focused on singular songs rather than on the record as a whole. Still, it manages to remind us about all the things that matter in this screwed up world. It gives hope to the human condition.
