7

Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

Blood Orange’s latest 
a sharp commentary

MUSIC REVIEW

“Freetown Sound” is a 
mix of eclectic sounds 

and messages

By SAM ROSENBERG

Daily Arts Writer

30-year-old British multi-instru-

mentalist Dev Hynes may not be the 
most well-known musician, but his 
status as a sing-
er, songwriter 
and producer 
makes him one 
of the most 
talented hidden 
gems working 
in the industry 
today. From 
playing for 
2000s dance-
punk band Test Icicles to going 
solo under the moniker Lightspeed 
Champion (now changed to Blood 
Orange), Hynes has written and 
produced songs for Sky Ferreira, 
Carly Rae Jepsen, Solange Knowles, 
FKA Twigs and Florence and The 
Machine. Other than his expertise 
in music production, what makes 
Hynes such a skilled musician is 
his drive to push against both sonic 
and thematic boundaries, making 
music that challenges the status 
quo. This fearless passion fueled his 
acclaimed 2013 sophomore effort 
Cupid Deluxe and his newest album 
as Blood Orange, Freetown Sound, 
propels Hynes even further into 
groundbreaking territory.

Like other great concept albums, 

Freetown Sound is a record as 
personally relevant as it is socially 
conscious, incorporating both uni-
versality and specificity. On the one 
hand, the album’s core influence 
stems from Hynes’s connection 
to his father, whose hometown of 
Freetown, Sierra Leone appears 
in the title. But, even more so, the 
record is a celebration of difference, 
identity and cultural unity, particu-
larly that of Black and queer pride. 
According to a recent Instagram 
post, Hynes dedicated this album 
to “everyone told they’re not Black 
enough, too Black, too queer, not 
queer the right way.” 

While Freetown Sound is cer-

tainly long (its 17 tracks stretch 
to about an hour), listening to 
the whole album song-by-song 
is a gratifying and mesmerizing 
experience. Freetown benefits not 
only from Hynes’ breathy vocals 
and gifted songwriting, but also 
from the album’s eclectic fusion 
of soul, hip hop, jazz, New Wave, 
calypso and pop. Throughout the 
record, Hynes successfully imbues 
his own worldview into the woozy 
rhythms, powerful lyrics and suit-
able samples of each track. Tropical 
standouts “Augustine” and “Best 
to You” find Hynes channeling dif-
ferent sides of his personality, the 
former embracing his African heri-
tage and the latter embracing that of 
a lover. “Hands Up” is a catchy yet 
unnerving anthem that spotlights 
the #BlackLivesMatter movement, 
with Hynes recognizing the victim-
ization of young Black kids in the 
song’s chorus (“Keep your hood off 
when you’re walking ‘cause they 
/ Hands up, get up, hands up, get 
up”). The song also acts as a com-
panion piece to the slightly superior 
“Sandra’s Smile,” a dizzying, synth-
heavy, Sandra Bland-referencing 
tune Hynes released back in 2015 
as a non-album single. However, 
when Hynes isn’t political, he softly 
and beautifully sings of unrequited 
love, heartbreak and loneliness on 
woeful tunes “With Him,” “Squash 
Squash” and “Better Than Me.”

In addition to being an album 

that encompasses creative expres-
sion, Freetown Sound is an intensely 
collaborative record, the majority of 
those collaborators being women. 
Though the artists helping Hynes 
go uncredited, they heighten Free-
town Sound’s already incredible 
foundation, as well as highlight the 

album’s feminist overtones. The 
impressive list includes Blondie lead 
singer Debbie Harry on “E.V.P.,” 
Zuri Marley on “Love Ya,” Carly 
Rae Jepsen on “Better Than Me,” 
Nelly Furtado (yes, the Nelly Furta-
do) on “Hadron Collider,” Empress 
Of’s Lorely Rodriguez on “Best to 
You” and New York-based singer 
Ava Raiin providing background 
vocals on multiple tracks. Hynes 
also samples Atlanta slam poet 
Ashlee Haze’s “For Colored Girls” 
on the fierce opener “By Ourselves,” 
where she praises rapper Missy 
Elliott and acknowledges the sig-
nificance of representation of Black 
women in the media.

Freetown Sound is to Hynes what 

Lemonade is to Beyoncé, To Pimp 
a Butterfly is to Kendrick Lamar, 
and Black Messiah is to D’Angelo. 
The album is not only a compelling, 
kaleidoscopic record with personal 
and political undertones, but also 
a powerfully evocative mosaic of 
thought-provoking themes and 
messages that blend together almost 
effortlessly. Freetown Sound is a 
triumph for Hynes, especially as 
it effectively conveys the singer/
songwriter’s struggle to find a place 
to call his home. He was born in 
London and lives in New York City, 
but Hynes goes even deeper by illu-
minating his Freetown roots. Just 
as important is Hynes’s ability to 
speak, write and sing about some of 
the most topical issues of today. In 
light of ongoing police brutality tar-
geting Black people and the recent 
tragic shooting at a gay nightclub in 
Orlando, Freetown Sound is not just 
a tribute to these oppressed groups, 
but also a stark reminder that we 
cannot ignore the harsh realities 
that surround us every day.

DOMINO

“Insert artsy fartsy quote here.”

‘Love’ this book

By SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Arts Writer

Hardly a week goes by without 

an article popping up on Facebook 
or Twitter analyzing the current 
situation regarding the love lives 
— or lack thereof — of millenni-
als. 
“They’re 

doomed,” the 
critics always 
seem to sob. 
“All they do 
now is hook-
up.”

“Romance 

is dead” has 
become a bat-
tle cry, though 
what war we’re fighting is still 
unclear. Some blame technology, 
some blame party or hookup cul-
ture, some blame feminism — the 
list continues, each reason more 
ridiculous than the last.

Moira Weigel’s “Labor of Love: 

the Invention of Dating” traces the 
idea that romance has sputtered 
out through history, mapping out 
where and how courtship and dat-
ing started and how it has evolved 
over time. She reveals how people 
have always been worried — dat-
ing has, in fact, died several times. 
And people have never not been 
preoccupied with marriage; she 
concludes her introduction with 
a shrewd observation that may 
alarm students stressing about the 
intersection of careers and rela-
tionships.

“If marriage is the long-term 

contract that many daters still hope 
to land, dating itself often feels like 
the worst, most precarious form 
of contemporary labor: an unpaid 
internship,” Weigel writes. “You 
cannot be sure where things are 
heading, but you try to gain experi-
ence. If you look sharp, you might 
get a free lunch.”

Weigel’s style is blunt; she lands 

her points neatly, the emphasis 
always hitting home where it needs 
to. Dating customs change as the 
economy changes; privacy is a 
recent invention; dating has always 
seemed to be “work for women and 
recreation for men;” beauty is cur-
rency for women; gay bars preced-
ed single bars for straights. “Labor 
of Love” is a quick and informative 
read that makes it easy for read-
ers to retain the information after 
they’ve finished.

Weigel highlights how customs 

and traditions that seem routine 
and normal to us now would be 

shockingly inappropriate in the 
past, but it also shows how the 
opposite is true. Parents and other 
people have always been worried 
about the sexual promiscuity of 
college kids. Before there was DTR-
ing (defining the relationship), 
there was going steady, and, before 
there was going steady, there was 
calling (the kind without phones). 
Before there was hooking up, there 
was necking, and, before there was 
necking, there was petting.

In other words, teenagers have 

always been misbehaving in the 
eyes of their elders. Who knew?

Weigel does a fantastic job of 

exploring dating and relationships 
with a lens towards class differ-
ences, inviting readers to consider 
fresh perspectives as to why we 
value the institution of marriage 
the way we do and to learn about 
the myths surrounding women’s 
biological clocks.

Her book is sprinkled with 

anecdotes that provide insight into 
social mores of different times, 
which she then fleshes out well 
with nuanced analysis.

But the book is lacking in some 

significant areas. Weigel dedicates 
a substantial amount of time to 
online dating, or dating apps, but 
never addresses one of the biggest 
gender divides regarding meeting 
people online: women are much 
more likely to be scared that their 
date could be a potential rapist or 
serial killer. Relatedly, she glosses 
over how the pervasiveness and 
threat of sexual assault colors the 
experiences of women on college 
campuses. She also glosses over 
many of the social difficulties that 
members of the queer community 
still face, painting a much sunnier 
picture of current realities than 
many members of that community 
would like.

The conclusion almost com-

pletely negates the validity and 
possibility for total satisfaction in 
a single life and hints at the impor-
tance of reproduction in all rela-
tionships. This teleological ending 
point may feel insulting to those 
who don’t feel the need or want to 
think about it, for any reason, at any 
point in their lives.

“Labor of Love” delivers on its 

promise of a fresh and fun — at 
times even poignant — perspective 
on love, dating, sex, relationships 
and marriage and the intersections 
of those four. 

But as for proof that romance 

isn’t dead? Keep looking.

Labor of Love: 
The Invention 
of Dating

Moira Weigel

Farrar, Straus 
and Giroux

A

Freetown 
Sound

Blood Orange

Domino

 BOOK REVIEW

