Its lyrical content draws from McMahon's childhood, his relationship with his father, masculinity, and his mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the beginning of the album's recording.

In 2015, after numerous tours in support of Amen Dunes' fourth studio album Love, Damon McMahon spent a few weeks in Lisbon, Portugal, where he began writing Freedom.

He came home to New York City shortly after and spent months with Amen Dunes collaborators Jordi Wheeler and Parker Kindred putting drums, guitars and keyboards to the songs and coming up with structural ideas himself.

[6][7][8] Recording of the album first began in February 2016 at Future Past Studios in Hudson, New York with Jordi Wheeler and Parker Kindred, joined by Delicate Steve.

"[12] "This whole record is about letting go of my hang-ups through ego-death, man; it’s about relinquishing all the terrestrial identities and histories and personal events and family lineage – all the things that I’d kind of clung to my whole life."

[17] The characters include father and mother, Amen Dunes, teenage glue addicts and drug dealer from Paris, ghosts above the plains, fallen surf heroes, vampires, thugs from Naples and thugs from Houston, the emperor of Rome, Jews, Jesus, Tashtego, Perseus, and even Damon McMahon himself.

[18] As such, McMahon himself has called Freedom a concept album, stating "It's like this image of this kid, it's this little boy who's like "now that I've shed my origins I'm going to start off in the world and get dreaming."

Other struggles explored in the album include masculinity; spirituality; his chaotic childhood; the realities of adulthood; and mortality, as examined through his mother's approach to her terminal cancer and overall how she had lived her life, which McMahon had previously been critical of.

[6] The concept of the "vacant mind" is introduced within the first minute of the album and is the central inspiration for the lyrics and themes that form Freedom.

[6] The album opens with "Intro", a 50-second track beginning with a sample from a YouTube video of a child reciting Kurt Russell's pre-game speech in the 2004 film Miracle, where he played U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks.

[20] The end of the song features the quote "I don't have any ideas myself; I have a vacant mind" by abstract painter Agnes Martin, as spoken by McMahon's mother.

"Blue Rose" is a "woozy disco-dub-folk jam"[21] that features "echoing" guitars, "propulsive" percussion[22] and "glowing" synths.

[24] "Blue Rose" is a song of retribution as a means of catharsis for McMahon's "adult self" and "little kid self," with the lyric "kill off my father" furthering this idea.

The song mentions the crucifixion of Jesus, the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the 15th century, moving to Ancient Rome, and The Holocaust.

[5][28] Divided into two parts, the first half of the song finds the narrator waking up in a drugged out daze and thinking that he would "maybe stay high forever and drift along the Mekong if I could".

[6] "Calling Paul the Suffering" is a "bright" song with a "danceable" groove in a "skittering" beat, backed by "gleaming" synthesizer hums and "glossy" guitars.

[6] "Miki Dora" is a "spacey" folk song with "slinky" guitars and a "coasting" beat that "ebbs and flows like the ocean waves".

Miki Dora is often portrayed as a heroic and charismatic figure despite having been known also to be a surly and standoffish person with bigoted views and a criminal record.

He illustrates how attractive and destructive some notions of masculinity can be, using Miki Dora as a symbol from an old era with the repeated lyric "the waves are gone".

[28] The song's title is a reference to Satudarah MC, an outlaw motorcycle club from the Netherlands with a reputation from violent criminal activity.

[6][28] "Freedom" is an anthem inspired by the music of Hüsker Dü and Bruce Springsteen that "unravels into a sun-baked slow dance".

[38][25] The song's character is a masculine identity: a man in Hollywood Hills dreaming about being the Emperor of the Roman Empire with his arm around a stranger.

McMahon called the drums and synthesizers on "L.A." a "direct rip off" of those on the Aphex Twin song "Acrid Avid Jam Shred".

The final lyrics tie into the Agnes Martin quote featured on "Intro", relating to the concept of the vacant mind.

McMahon said, "It conveniently ties into the theme of the album, which is "that's all not me," meaning all these things from the Irish dad, to the Jewishness, to the surf hero, to my childhood, to teen years, to my 20s; all this shit, as hung up as I am in it, it's actually not all me, it's an attempt at letting it go".

[6] Freedom was announced on January 17, 2018 alongside the release of the album's lead single "Miki Dora" and an accompanying music video directed by Steven Brahms.

[39] "Blue Rose" was released on February 14, 2018 as the album's second single with an accompanying music video directed by Alex Goldberg.

It includes live versions of "Freedom", "Skipping School", "Miki Dora" and "L.A." recorded at various shows throughout Amen Dunes' European tour.

[45] Ben Homewood of NME gave the album a perfect score calling it a "grand, pop-rock masterpiece" and said, "It's the scale of Freedom's sound that cements it as an instantaneous classic; far and away McMahon's most complete work to date.

"[30] Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork praised the album calling it "the most dynamic, confident Amen Dunes record to date" and said, "On Freedom, McMahon's voice is clearer, his hooks are sharper, and his music—once a hazy spider web of hisses, drones, and vamps—opens to reveal a latent aspiration toward the classic-rock songbook.