Late Monday night, Devonté Hynes decided to let the world have access to the new Blood Orange album a little early. The album, which was originally supposed to be available on July 1, is out now for the world to hear.
The record, called Freetown Sound, is available on iTunes, Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music. You can check out Hynes' interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 below.
In a May 2015 interview with Complex, Hynes said that the then in-progress album was about his struggle to "reclaim [his] image, re-appropriate it and own it," and that it would "explor[e] a lot of different avenues of African-American music."
Hynes' fans were of course thrilled by getting the album early.
Hynes also decided to drop his self-directed video for album standout track, "Augustine," that finds him hitting the streets and rooftops of New York with friends. Of course, he graces us with his usual dance and piano skills before grabbing a snack with The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas. Hynes even takes a moment to tribute his father’s Sierra Leone birthplace whose capital inspired the album name with a hand-painted flag.
The track is only the beginning of what Hynes has to offer on the album that features from Carly Rae Jepsen, Empress Of, Debbie Harry, Nelly Furtado, Vince Staples, De La Soul, and more. You can watch "Augustine" and listen to Freetown Sound in its entirety below. For more of Hynes' music, you can check out the all-instrumental project, originally intended for a movie soundtrack, that he released last year.
