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Freetown Sound

Blood Orange

Freetown Sound

Third album as Blood Orange from Dev Hynes the multi-faceted singer-songwriter and producer behind Lightspeed Champion and Test Icicles

ADM rating[?]

7.7

Label
Domino
UK Release date
28/06/2016
US Release date
28/06/2016
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  1. 10.0 |   A.V. Club

    While his time in London and New York City have shaped Blood Orange’s sound, they aren’t the source. Hynes’ sense of self that listeners so adore comes from Freetown
    Read Review

  2. 10.0 |   The Irish Times

    Connects personal with political, perspective with passion, and as such its impact is immense
    Read Review

  3. 9.1 |   Consequence Of Sound

    A bold, uncompromising statement against oppression and a striking representation of society's struggles
    Read Review

  4. 9.0 |   FasterLouder

    He revisits styles that, in their time, were heavily appropriated by white artists, and attempts to rewrite and reclaim musical history
    Read Review

  5. 9.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    It’s melodically strong enough, and bursting with so many ideas that it feels incredibly timeless: futuristic and classic all at once
    Read Review

  6. 9.0 |   Exclaim

    Freetown Sound finds Hynes at the peak of his powers, mixing his best songwriting and production yet to powerful, purposeful effect
    Read Review

  7. 8.8 |   Pitchfork

    A searing and soothing personal document, striking the same resonant chords as Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly or D’Angelo’s Black Messiah
    Read Review

  8. 8.5 |   Under The Radar

    When coupled with a powerful message and masterful vocal and instrumental arrangements, the result is Dev Hynes best work under any of his musical guises
    Read Review

  9. 8.5 |   Spectrum Culture

    An arresting work on multiple levels
    Read Review

  10. 8.0 |   Clash

    An expertly tailored and politically-charged work of pop
    Read Review

  11. 8.0 |   Crack

    His most ambitious project to date, Freetown Sound is undoubtedly Hynes’ opus, albeit an imperfect one, and cements his position as one of the most distinctive figures in leftfield pop
    Read Review

  12. 8.0 |   Gig Soup

    Freetown Sound is a gem
    Read Review

  13. 8.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    Freetown Sound is a clapback, a healing song, a historical re-embodiment of the (infinite number of) (also) black experience(s) contained within the vantage of a single individual
    Read Review

  14. 8.0 |   Q

    Sprawling, ambitious and politically conscious. Print edition only

  15. 8.0 |   NME

    In a nutshell, this album is about the social and generational forces that have shaped Hynes’ own sense of blackness
    Read Review

  16. 8.0 |   NOW

    The hallmarks of Blood Orange’s sound are all here but channelled into a reassuring, comfortable space that brings together pop’s supposed polarities of accessibility and specificity
    Read Review

  17. 8.0 |   Mojo

    A record with unusually sharp focus. Print edition only

  18. 8.0 |   Spin

    Hynes seems to have deliberately made this his blurriest effort to date, a blending of his chosen genres and ideas in a disorienting collage
    Read Review

  19. 8.0 |   The Music

    A rewarding listen that reveals more and more of itself over time
    Read Review

  20. 8.0 |   Rolling Stone

    R&B innovator explores identity and refuses borders on a deep avant-pop mixtape
    Read Review

  21. 7.5 |   The 405

    Freetown Sound is a cultural centre where personal ideas prevail, political priorities are articulated and spiritual theories are questioned
    Read Review

  22. 7.5 |   Earbuddy

    This is Dev Hynes’s statement album about race, gender, identity, legacies, ice cream, funk, Michael Jackson, and…okay, maybe it would be more expedient to list what it isn’t about. Ahem: coherence and brevity
    Read Review

  23. 7.5 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    It’s an album that feels haphazard but one that is luckily more hit than miss, and an album that ultimately needs to be experienced
    Read Review

  24. 7.0 |   All Music

    It's hard not to be in awe of a man as complicated as Devonté Hynes being able to compose such an insightful, personal experience
    Read Review

  25. 7.0 |   Loud And Quiet

    At its best, it is clever and twisted: carefully choreographed layers of timeless pop that build to offer a searing critique on the shitty state of the world
    Read Review

  26. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    A flawed love-letter to the ‘80s, to the people who just want to dance, to the people who feel marginalized, to the people who feel oppressed
    Read Review

  27. 7.0 |   musicOMH

    There’s certainly more highlight than filler contained in Freetown Sound and it is, ultimately, an album that deserves to be heard
    Read Review

  28. 7.0 |   Slant Magazine

    The album has the potential of a personal masterwork, but its master is more conductor than confessor
    Read Review

  29. 7.0 |   Uncut

    Prince-ly funk pop with hushed, psychedelic soul, cosmic jazz and deep disco. Print edition only

  30. 6.0 |   The Guardian

    It’s often passionate, illuminating and fascinating, it frequently bears the hallmarks of self-indulgence, and some of it, you get the feeling, might only make sense to its author
    Read Review

  31. 6.0 |   The Independent

    Takes the soft-soul stylings of 2013’s Cupid Deluxe and mashes them together with African voices and percussion, saxophones and vox populi samples to create a sonic collage that seeks to marry the vision of Marvin Gaye with the methods of Frank Zappa
    Read Review

  32. 6.0 |   The Observer

    Ancestry explored in a collage of sounds
    Read Review

  33. 6.0 |   DIY

    ‘Freetown Sound’ is the full documentation of Dev Hynes’ transition from scrappy post-punk wonder-kid to slinky New York vintage store aficionado. It’s capable of dazzling results
    Read Review

  34. 6.0 |   Evening Standard

    Dev Hynes seems more interested in spoken-word samples than songs
    Read Review

  35. 6.0 |   The FT

    Moments of drift, encapsulated by Hynes’s swooning vocal style, mitigate the effect of an otherwise striking concept
    Read Review

  36. Back to main chart

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Blood Orange: Freetown Sound

  • Download full album for just £8.49
  • 1. By Ourselves £0.89
  • 2. Augustine £0.89
  • 3. Chance £0.89
  • 4. Best to You £0.89
  • 5. With Him £0.89
  • 6. E.V.P. £0.89
  • 7. Love Ya £0.89
  • 8. But You £0.89
  • 9. Desirée £0.89
  • 10. Hands Up £0.89
  • 11. Hadron Collider £0.89
  • 12. Squash Squash £0.89
  • 13. Juicy 1-4 £0.89
  • 14. Better Than Me £0.89
  • 15. Thank You £0.89
  • 16. I Know £0.89
  • 17. Better Numb £0.89
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