Blood Orange - Freetown Sound, review: ‘oddly subdued’

Dev Hynes’s previous Blood Orange record was a glorious refashioning of a retro New York club sound from a songwriter raised in Ilford and now settled in the US.

The liquid funk, taut disco and elegant R&B set up this follow-up to be his commercial breakthrough. Hynes secured guest appearances from Debbie Harry, Carly Rae Jepsen and Nelly Furtado, but the 17-track album is sprawling and self-indulgent.

From the slinky, clipped guitar on But You to the rickety rhythm on Desiree and the elegiac brass and beats on Squash Squash, there’s always something intriguing going on. Yet Hynes seems more interested in smothering Freetown Sound with spoken-word samples rather than honing the songs.