Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange just announced that his new album, Freetown Sound, will drop July 1st. He wrote and produced the whole thing on his own. The last we heard from Blood Orange was Cupid Deluxe, which was released (and loved) way back in 2013. All 17 tracks on the new album are labeled as such, i.e., “track 1,” “track 2” and so forth. (For now.) But we highly doubt the nondescript titles are a reflection of the actual soundscape.
The title, Freetown Sound, is drawn from the capital of Sierra Leone where Hynes’s father was born. In a now-deleted tweet, Hynes released a statement:
“I have just finished making an album about my life, my upbringing, being black in England, being black in America…my movement to this country at the age of 21, the same age that my mother moved from Guyana to London, and my father from Sierra Leone to London.Freetown Sound, the name of my album, is taken from Freetown where my father was born.”
The artist also announced some upcoming tour dates, including dates at Bonnaroo and Pitchfork Music Festival. See the full dates below.
June 10 — Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo June 30 — Copenhagen, Denmark – Roskilde July 2 — London, England – Hyde Park July 5 — London, England – Koko July 7 — Milan, Italy – Festival Moderno July 9 — Turku, Finland – Ruisrock July 16 — Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival July 23 — New York, NY – Panorama Festival August 27 — Berkeley, CA – Greek Theater August 28 — Los Angeles, CA – FYF Fest
And the trailer: