In the first track of the album, a clear standout, “Nikes,” the hook only appears once in the entire song, his real voice doesn’t appear until after three minutes in, and it ends with a verse in Japanese. On many tracks Ocean is singing almost acapella, with only an organ or a guitar in the background, and on others his voice is pitched so far up it is almost unrecognizable.īlonde is by far Frank Ocean’s most experimental album yet, with many songs following no clear structure. While Channel Orange had catchy summery melodies, Blonde has a strange beauty that can be felt best in its sparseness. īlonde is significantly different from Endless and nothing like Channel Orange. The next day, Endless was followed by Frank Ocean’s third official studio album, Blonde.
They go hand-in-hand and if you loved the complex instrumentals of Channel Orange, Endless may be more accessible for you. Endless is stunning in its own right and it’s tragic that it is getting almost completely overlooked in favor of Blonde. After years of seeming broken promises to fans and speculation about whether or not a new album would ever be released, one morning a strange visual album Endless appeared on Apple Music. There was nothing conventional about Blonde ’s release. From the opening synths on “Nikes” to the closing skit on “Futura Free” the album feels bigger than life. His newest album, Blonde, immerses you into a peaceful, lonely paradise and proves, yet again, why he is one of the best songwriters of our generation.įrank Ocean has made such an elusive and mysterious persona for himself that Blonde feels like a gift from god. Channel Orange brought me into the life of the stripper on “Pyramids,” or into the lavish yet depressed lives of privileged Californian kids on, “Super Rich Kids.” Most artists try to do this, but Frank Ocean has mastered it.
To me, what makes Channel Orange special is that it creates its own parallel universe, while staying grounded in the real world. Maybe it is because I have played both so many times that they have soundtracked infinitely many memorable moments of my last few years, but both albums hold a special place in my heart and are critically acclaimed, groundbreaking projects from genre-defying artists. Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange and Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are the only two albums that I feel truly changed my life.
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