Blood Orange’s Freetown Sound Highlight “Best to You” Is Selfless
Dev Hynes’ Freetown Sound takes on everything from cultural appropriation to feminism to police brutality—but it offers much more than quick-hit hashtag commentary. The album is understated and aching. It shows more than it tells. It comes together with force, but it’s made up of small stories, asides, snippets, pieces of broken hearts. “Best to You” is the most direct song here—the one most likely to light up satellite radio (and streaming) playlists—as well as the most selfless. That’s not just because Hynes shines the vocal spotlight on Lorely Rodriguez, aka Empress Of, for most of the track, but because it deals with the acute loss of identity that can come with a one-sided relationship.
Like much of Hynes’ best work—think Solange’s “Losing You”—“Best to You” mixes melancholy with nimble percussion; these songs hurt at their core, but Hynes surrounds them with movement, exuberance, and a palpable sense of hope. Rodriguez sounds desperate as she clings to a thread that’s already unraveled. She sounds sprightly, though her pleas contain pain. “I can’t be the girl you want but I can be the thing you throw away,” she decides, repeating those last two words until they too lose all meaning. Hynes, for his part, offers a counterpoint in the chorus. “Do you really want to?” he sings after Rodriguez pledges to give her love without getting any in return. He’s the angel on her shoulder, the friend who comforts but does not judge.
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