Blood Orange - Freetown Sound

2xLP BLACK VINYL Devonté Hynes' genre-hopping career has been nothing if not an exploration of identity. So if Hynes' time with Test Icicles represents early teenage angst, and Lightspeed Champion is the melancholic bewilderment of the early twenties, then surely Blood Orange is the assured, almost full-blown, adult? Not quite. Although the quest for personal discovery never truly ends, there comes a time when we stop looking inward and begin to question our place in the wider picture, fraught with injustice, prejudice, and peers who are just as lost. The struggle with identity and its interaction with the world is perfectly captured within the 17 tracks of Freetown Sound; often confusing, with multiple overlapping thoughts, the album charts a parallel course through Hynes' personal reflections on race and gender, and his impetus to call out the obstacles shared by all those who consider themselves outsiders. Hynes' reflection is far-reaching, going all the way back to the capital of S