Blood Orange Announces New Studio Album 'Freetown Sound'
“It talks a lot about sexuality and displacement and life in the city—so it’s definitely very personal, but in doing that I think it’s probably the most relatable thing I’ve ever done.”
After months of teasing, Blood Orange/Dev Hynes has finally announced his next full-length studio album. Dev Hynes revealed the news in a new feature and interview for V Magazine, where he spoke to writer/journalist T. Cole Rachel. Speaking to Rachel, Hynes divulged plans to drop the project in spring. He also said it will be called Freetown Sound, while saying the LP is “inspired by old Dust Brothers records” and is almost like his version of Beastie Boy’s critically-acclaimed classic Paul’s Boutique. Further breaking down the LP’s themes and narrative, he explains:
“It talks a lot about sexuality and displacement and life in the city—so it’s definitely very personal, but in doing that I think it’s probably the most relatable thing I’ve ever done…This is a very layered and very deep record for me. There’s a lot of meaning behind all of the choices I’ve made for this one. It looks into my childhood and examines who I am at this point in my life. There are so many crazy layers to it that it’s actually quite hard to talk about it, but the record is very reflective of how my brain works. This is gonna sound terrifying, but there is a strong theme of Christianity on the record. When I was growing up, Christianity was drilled into my head so intensely, to the point where, as a child, I was meant to be left-handed but was forced to use my right instead. Left-handedness was seen as a sign of darkness. Freetown Sound also has a lot to do with Freetown—the capital of Sierra Leone—which is where my dad is from. The record addresses the way Christianity was brought to West Africa and the way black households held on very tightly to Christianity because it was this beacon of hope…and how eventually this somehow led to someone in a school telling me not to use my left hand. It’s been very interesting for me trying to understand and tie all of these things together. It’s been a way of working through it. There’s also a lot of stuff about race and specifically things that have happened to me.”
