On his third self written/produced LP, Dev Hynes, who creates his music under the moniker Blood Orange, introduces us to his resonance puzzle. It pieces together a spectrum of societal racial, religious, and gender agendas to vocalise his collection of Freetown Sounds — but his introduction belongs to a voice foreign to his own. Instead, he lends first track ‘By Ourselves’ to slam poet Ashlee Haze who alludes to herself as ‘a 26 year old woman who learned how to dance until she felt pretty’ and appoints Missy Elliot and her visibility to ‘a million black girls just waiting to see someone who looks like them’ the reason she grew to love the woman she is today. Ashlee’s compelling proposition atop Dev’s signature nostalgic, jazzy instrumentals speak intense volumes, and it’s not the first time Blood Orange uses a valiant female narrative to do so.
Each of the 17 tracks’ liberty and determination help in personifying it’s Freetown Sound title, named after Dev’s fathers hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone, but the real stars of the show are the women. Contrasting with his own first person, candidly sharp yet ever sonically syrupy account, one of the most notable aspects of Freetown Sound is the array of both established (Debbie Harrie on ‘E.V.P.’ and Nelly Furtado on ‘Hadron Collider’) and unestablished (Empressof on ‘Best To You’ and Carly Rae Jepsen on ‘Better Than Me’) powerful female voices Dev uses to tell a marginalised narrative, creating a very much feminism driven record; solidifying himself an ally to the female gaze and particularly the black female experience. Blood Orange makes room for his own experience though of course, unpacking exactly what it means for him to be a young, black male in a world where black masculinity is fragile and fluidity rarely expressed, disclosing in a recent interview with Pitchfork: “If you’re not a white straight male, most things on this album are on your mind right now.”
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Words: Laura McInnes
