Album review: Freetown Sound by Blood Orange plays like a long mixtape

Devonté Hynes’s politics are both general and personal, examining “who I am at this point in life”, while frequently depicting the wider picture.

Dev Hynes of Blood Orange. Getty Images / AFP
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Freetown Sound

Blood Orange

(Domino)

Three stars

Freetown Sound, the latest from Devonté Hynes, aka Blood Orange, is a fascinating 17-track album approximating an AM radio sound collage of yore, pop hits blending with breaking news bulletins and history capsules.

Hynes, who was in dance-punk band Test Icicles in hometown London before relocating to New York and releasing material as Lightspeed Champion, says his third album “plays like a long mixtape”.

Hynes's politics are both general and personal, examining "who I am at this point in life", while frequently depicting the wider picture. Freetown, Sierra Leone, is his father's birthplace; Juicy 1-4 references slavery; and Hands Up is that news bulletin that hits too close to home, advising you to "keep your hood off when you're walking".

Other highlights include Hadron Collider, co-written and performed with Furtado; the P.M. Dawn-like soaring vocals of Augustine and its empathetic take on race relations; the pure pop of Best to You with Rodriguez (who records as Empress Of); and the sax-driven heartbreak of Squash Squash.

artslife@thenational.ae