Ever since penning Sky Ferreira’s hit "Everything Is Embarrassing" (which New York called the best song of 2012) and helping Solange write her breakout EP True, Dev Hynes has been in high demand for his melancholy synth-pop. He’s got writing and producing credits on everything from film scores to Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest album Emotion. But the British polymath—known by his alias Blood Orange—is not afraid to turn people down.
“I can’t even tell you how many production offers I’ve said no to because I asked if we could hang out first and they said no,” he says.
Then again, Hynes would sooner do his own thing, anyway. He often holes up in his New York apartment, recording “tons and tons of stuff” that rarely leaves his computer—some of which became the 17 tracks on Freetown Sound, Blood Orange’s highly anticipated third album.
While the album was originally scheduled for release on July 1, Hynes decided to surprise his fans via Instagram announcement:
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The project grew out of work so personal that Hynes wasn’t sure he wanted to release it. But last winter, around the time he sold out two shows at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, he began to see something cohesive that could be “listenable for people.” In only three months, he created a densely layered, sample-laced album that expands on his signature yearning vocals, drum machine beats, and sensual sax hooks. It treads through multiple genres, sometimes all within the same song, and features stirringly intimate and often political songwriting. He investigates, for example, imperialism, experiencing racism, and the influence of his West African-Christian upbringing in working-class London. “My album is just me thinking,” he says.
Some of the album’s best tracks feature the kind of collaborations that brought Hynes mainstream success. He co-wrote the soaring “Hadron Collider” with Nelly Furtado during a spontaneous recording session, and made “Best to You,” a thumping, melodic dance tune, with indie artist Lorely Rodriguez of Empress Of. But as people continue to come knocking, Hynes looks inward. “I make music because I want to hear it,” he says. A whole lot of us want to hear it, too.
