Frank Ocean’s “Blonde”- The Most Perfect of Imperfections
One thing that has always set Frank Ocean apart from your run of the mill, bland R&B crooner (mentioning no names… *Cough* Miguel *Cough*) is the way he approaches his songwriting. His debut album, Channel Orange painted vivid pictures of drug addicts, “Depressed but rich” kids, but most importantly painted an identity for Frank Ocean himself. A singer who, having fallen in love with another man faced insecurity, heartbreak and questioned his religion and existence. It’s this vulnerability and personality which made Channel Orange such a roaring success, with tons of fans being able to relate with Ocean’s courage. The record ended up winning the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary album, and following on from this, he set upon creating another masterpiece immediately.
4 years, and a good while after the initial #JULY2015 release date, we have an album(s) on our hands. The first of which to be released was the visual album Endless, birthed from the mysterious Apple Music sponsored live stream that appeared on Ocean’s website. The live stream featured Ocean intermittently walking onto the set and building what ultimately turned out to be (Spoiler alert) a spiral staircase. He built most of this staircase in the first week of August and did not return to the stream until 3:00 AM on the 19th. I remember waking up randomly at 3 and seeing a notification on my phone from 5 minutes ago saying “FRANKS BACK ON THE STREAM” and immediately began watching. The staircase was built and Endless was released.
Now, the visual album is essentially just a 45 minute highlight reel of the stream with the 18 song project playing over the top. The songs were very familiar as they had been teased throughout the stream, and songs like “U-N-I-T-Y” and “Commes des Garçons” indicated a change of style for Ocean and more experimentation with rapping, which he performed capably and with a better flow than some rappers out there. Other songs like the Aaliyah cover “At Your Best (You Are Love)” and “Rushes” highlight his incredible vocal range, with the former quite possibly being his best vocal performance to date.
However, is this album ground-breaking? No. While several of the tracks were some of the best in his discography, the vast majority of the project felt unfinished. “Commes des Garçons” being a prime example of a song that, while being well written and performed, was short to the point of aggravating the listener, a fact true for many of the cuts on the project. This album also suffers from a bewildering trend of being poorly mixed and mastered, a problem that has also befallen Kanye West and Chance the Rapper this year. A lot of the songs sound tinny and as if they had been recorded in a bathroom rather than a studio. In this aspect, had this have been the final album I would’ve felt incredibly underwhelmed.
Fortunately that isn’t the case. Ocean released his second album in as many days “Blond(e)” on Saturday night. The album starts with the lead single “Nikes” a captivating track which employs a higher pitched edited vocal which has polarised fans opinions. Having heard a pitched down version of this song, I have to agree with Frank that the album version is better. The high pitched vocal makes the normal pitched singing by Frank feel that bit more special, the instrumental also contributes by switching up to a grander sound at that point. The flow Frank displays on this track is welcome new ground for the singer, who can definitely rap as well. The lyrics get more personal in the outro, as Frank sings “I’m not him, but I’ll mean something to you” which hints at the personal take this album will have on love.
The second track “Ivy” has a twangy guitar instrumental reminiscent of Mac DeMarco, and explores maturity and love as you get older. The song seems to be about the man Frank fell in love with that inspired Channel Orange, and about that man confessing his love for Frank but too much has changed for everything to go back to how it was. A very strong vocal performance accompanied with an interesting but stripped back beat, but a perplexing outro of what is presumably Frank in the studio, that didn’t really serve too much of a purpose here.
“The production [on Pink + White] is so sweet it is comparable to squirting a bottle of Maple syrup directly into your mouth, except this sweetness doesn’t make your stomach hurt.”
This goes into the next song “Pink + White” a dreamy tightly produced song that sounds like it could’ve been produced by Pharrell or The Neptunes. The production is so sweet it is comparable to squirting a bottle of Maple syrup directly into your mouth, except this sweetness doesn’t make your stomach hurt. The song discusses what Frank learned from a past relationship, possibly the one mentioned in “Ivy”. Beyoncé features on this song but definitely doesn’t steal any kind of spotlight; I didn’t even recognise it was her on the outro until a second listen. Frank is one of few artists who could possibly command Beyoncé to take a backseat, and it holds well for his integrity and the feel of the song.
After this we get an interlude titled “Be yourself”, a voicemail from Frank’s mum about not doing drugs and (surprise surprise) being yourself. Interludes to be expected on a Frank Ocean album, they featured on Channel Orange as well as mixtape Nostalgia Ultra, and this one is more listenable than the ones featured on previous projects, as it has a more distinct sound quality.
This interlude is almost immediately contradicted on the next song “Solo” in which Frank raps in the first couple of lines about being “gone off tabs of that acid”. The rap flow here is decent, not as show- stopping as on “Nikes” but has a subtle and subdued quality that the instrumental of this track commands. The beat is similar to that of “Bad Religion” from Channel Orange, and deals with the similar personal topic of feeling lonely while on tour and abusing drugs. The song is one of the more chilled out and soulful cuts from the album and the vocal is flawless.
“Lyrically [Skyline To] isn’t all that direct, Frank goes from singing about sex to drugs to driving his car and then back to sex and then drugs again.”
Next comes the apparently Tyler, the Creator produced “Skyline To” which definitely has a Tyler feel to it, the instrumental also wouldn’t sound out of place on a Childish Gambino record. Lyrically this song isn’t all that direct, Frank goes from singing about sex to drugs to driving his car and then back to sex and then drugs again. The summery and airy production is the real highlight here, as well as Kendrick Lamar chipping in to occasionally shout random words throughout the track in one of the more humorous features on the project. However the unfocused nature of the lyrics makes this one of the weaker songs.
“Self Control” is a song about willpower in relationships, and perhaps one of the best written songs on the entire project, like when Frank sings “I made you use your self control, and you made me lose my self control”. The production is pretty simple but goes well with the chilled out flow and this song sees a return of the higher pitch we heard on “Nikes” except perhaps even higher notes on this one, which doesn’t quite have the same effect. The song also features a surprisingly decent vocal performance by Yung Lean towards the end as well as some tasty Prince inspired guitar riffs, an artist Frank is a self-confessed “Stan” of.
“Good guy” is a very personal and open song about Frank meeting up with a guy for a blind date in New York. The production here is one of the only poorly mastered songs on the album, the vocals sound grainy and tinny which take a little bit away from the track. The song is also only a minute long, but is definitely one of the more personal and intimate lyrical moments on the album.
“[Nights] is perfect for driving to on a summer’s eve (believe me I’ve already been whipping with this song)”
This goes into “Nights” which has crisp, metallic chiming production. This song is perfect for driving to on a summer’s eve (believe me I’ve already been whipping with this song). The instrumental then flips nicely for the more chilled second half of the song which features a decently performed verse from 6lack (or at least speculated to be him). Lyrically, Frank sings about all the stuff he does at night in the city, not too deep but great vocal performance and production.
Next is a reprise of the song from earlier “Solo” except this time it does not feature Frank and is instead a minute and a half verse from Andre 3000 who was heavily rumoured to feature after he collaborated with Frank on Channel Orange. In terms of flow, Andre 3000 is still one of the strongest rappers in the game despite not being hugely musically active for years, and he discusses this on the track. He even manages to sneak in what is assumed to be a diss at Drake when he says “I’m so naive, I was under the impression everyone wrote their own verses”. In terms of production, this features a similar piano beat to the original “Solo” but a little funkier. One of the more entertaining interludes on the album.
The short song “Pretty Sweet” starts off with a busy instrumental for the first 30 seconds which is almost an attack on the ears, but smooths out later and gives us a decent vocal performance and an interesting drum beat, an instrument which has proved sparse in this album so far.
Another interlude next called “Facebook story” which features French producer SebastiAn telling a story about a girlfriend who thought he was cheating because he refused to add her on Facebook. A pretty funny interlude, but much like Silver Surfer Intermission on The Life Of Pablo, doesn’t hold much replay value (Sorry for not being wavy).
The next song “Close to you” is a minute and a half cover of a song by the same name by Stevie Wonder. Pretty decent vocal performance but doesn’t add a whole lot to the album.
The wave of short songs and interludes of the last few songs is over as we hear “White Ferrari”. Wow. Lyrically the song is about being so happy ascending to heaven in a White Ferrari. Pretty trippy but a beautiful experience and really well written. Vocally, Frank is flawless on this track. The production maybe could have been a little livelier, but the chilled out synths work well too.
When I first heard the next song “Seigfried” I sat up and just started singing along with the words. I had heard this song 3 years ago in a YouTube video of Frank performing a new song called “Brave” in Germany, but I believed the song had been binned. Compared to the live version, this one is less grand, but if it had been it wouldn’t have fit on the album. Vocally and production wise this is one of the strongest moments on the album, with a great singing and rapping performance. Lyrically, it is intimate; “Seigfried” stems from a character in mythology who was a brave warrior and the song is about Frank admitting his fears. A vulnerable song but one of his finest.
“Godspeed” is a song which lyrically seems a direct sequel to “Bad Religion” and talking to the person that song was addressing. The song is about moving on and wishing the person he loved the very best. The production features stunning organs and a beautiful outro performed by gospel singer Kim Burrell. At this point in the album Frank is delivering one incredible vocal performance after another.
The album outro “Futura Free” is an honest and clear commentary of how Frank is right now. Lyrically he speaks about his surprise at being rich for doing something that helps him, insisting “I should be paying you” and talks about working for minimum wage and calling his mum being ecstatic that he was starting to make it. He talks about a lot of things from his life in the song and it makes for a fitting end to the album, however at the end of the track is a bewildering interview with Frank in which no questions make any sense or get answered properly, with a sound quality so bad you can barely make out what’s being said. What was the point in adding this on?
“People were hyping this album up like it was the second coming of Christ. It’s not a perfect album, but it’s pretty damn close.”
In a way the last song symbolises what Frank Ocean is all about; mystery. That’s the reason for the hype, the vanishing act he pulled for 4 years. No music, away from the media. Does this album live up to the hype? No. Of course it doesn’t. How could it possibly. People were hyping this up like it was the second coming of Christ. It may not be the magnum opus everyone was expecting, it’s not a perfect album, but it’s pretty damn close. Vocally Frank has topped Channel Orange and then some, lyrically he is more introspective and personal, production is more blended than Channel Orange but the tracks don’t all sound the same. This is an ambitious R&B album that, while not the best album ever of all time, is a very unique experience and comfortably places Frank Ocean as the best singer of this generation. He clearly is inspired by Prince, David Bowie, Michael Jackson and The Beatles - and with material improving like this project after project he isn’t too far off this kind of status, even arguably already there in the eyes of some “Stans” (Me).
As for the future, we probably won’t hear from him for another 12 years. But when we do, it just might be the best goddamn album ever.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story please hit the heart button below and leave a comment, I’d love to know what you think of the album.
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