It’s been just over a year since Dev Hynes released his widely acclaimed and politically charged Freetown Sound, a smorgasbord of mellow funk, subtle 80s pop hooks and vocals smoother than a Brahm’s lullaby.
Now comes the very excellent (and specific) news that his next album is “78 percent” done. Talking at the New Yorker Festival, the producer/singer/synesthete gave a rare insight into what we can expect from his next project, beyond the obvious, that it’ll be incredible and will monopolise the i-D HQ stereo for months.
As Vulture reports, Dev talked about how this album will focus on his English upbringing. “A lot of the new songs on the new album deal with growing up and childhood in England,” he explained. “Looking at the country that made me.”
Of course, that’s not at all to say it’ll be an anthemic celebration of nationalistic pride. As we’re all too aware post-Brexit, racism runs rife within England — and has for a long time. Case in point: Hynes describing how he used to cross the road every time he walked past a pub that flew the Union Jack outside. On his home of Essex, he says, “it’s one of the only places in England where the BNP, which is the British National Party, a.k.a. the racist party — ‘Keep Britain White’ was one of their campaigns — were constantly elected in power.”
He continues, “this one is definitely me looking at my younger self, growing up in that setting. So yeah, it’s a little dark.”