On the surface, Freedom is a reflection on growing up, childhood friends who ended up in prison or worse, male identity, McMahon’s father, and his mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the beginning of recording. The characters that populate the musical world of Freedom are a colorful mix of reality and fantasy: father and mother, Amen Dunes, teenage glue addicts and Parisian drug dealers, ghosts above the plains, fallen surf heroes, vampires, thugs from Naples and thugs from Houston, the emperor of Rome, Jews, Jesus, Tashtego, Perseus, even McMahon himself. Each character portrait is a representation of McMahon, of masculinity, and of his past. Yet, if anything, these 11 songs are a relinquishing of all of them through exposition; a gradual reorientation of being away from the acquired definitions of self we all cling to. The music, as a response or even a solution to the album’s darker themes, is tough and joyous, rhythmic and danceable; a true NYC street record. Sacred Bones is now repressing Amen Dunes’ critically acclaimed breakthrough record Freedom in a bunch of new colors in celebration of the label’s 15th year anniversary. “The fifth album from Damon McMahon is his euphoric breakthrough. Everything feels silvery and romantic, like a hallucination of the classic-rock songbook.” – Pitchfork [BEST NEW MUSIC] “Freedom is a star-making album dressed in humility …It’s classic rock through the lens of isolation, feverish and untamed, and pulsing with danger.” – Uproxx, “The 50 Best Albums of 2018 So Far” “Freedom rings as both immediate and timeless, intensely personal and easily understood.” – SPIN, SPIN ESSENTIAL TRACKLIST: 01. Intro 02. Blue Rose 03. Time 04. Skipping School 05. Calling Paul the Suffering 06. Miki 08. Dora 09. Satudarah 10. Believe 11. Dracula 12. Freedom 13. L.A.
