Beneath the digital production and R2D2 vocals, Akon is secretly
an old-fashioned romantic, and his third album is his most
heart-on-sleeve. There’s a song about high rolling (“I’m So Paid,”
featuring Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy) and a skeezy ode to PDA, “We
Don’t Care.” But most of Freedom is pure melodrama about love and
love lost, delivered in a hooting style over synth-swamped beats
that are clo…