“Pink + White” has the best instrumental on the album with simple guitar melodies and percussion.
“Solo” features one of Ocean’s most animated vocal performances layered over an ethereal humming, and the personality in his voice is amazing. However, when Ocean’s voice dominates, it produces the best songs on this album. While simplicity can produce good songs, the tracks are so simple that they’re boring. Other instrumentals on songs like “Skyline to,” “Seigfried,” and “White Ferrari” are very quiet. Most of the instrumentals are very simple, such as those on the song “Ivy.” This song features repetitive and reverb-soaked keys, which become tiresome. This problem reoccurs for a sizeable portion of the album. The instrumental on this song also becomes stale very quickly, because it doesn’t progress throughout the song. Even at the end of the song, where the vocal effects are lessened, his voice sounds sterile. 20 through Def Jam Records, and it feels rather underwhelming.īlonde kicks off with the song “Nike’s,” and despite being an excellent vocalist, Ocean’s vocals are pitch-shifted into a chipmunk-like voice that sucks the life out of his performance. While this new project, Blonde, (previously Boys Don’t Cry) built up massive hype, this album doesn’t satisfy the cravings for a Channel Orange follow-up. It was far from perfect, but Ocean’s potential was clear. He is a remarkable storyteller who believes “when it comes to understanding music, the most important thing is to just press play.The word ‘anticipation’ isn’t enough to capture the attitude of millions of people begging Frank Ocean to release a new album after his 2012 hit Channel Orange.
Ocean is known for veering away from the media, unlike most celebrities. His incognito stance leave many wondering what he is thinking and what he has planned next. It is powerful, emotionally intimate and, most importantly, honest. Well played, Frank. It seems like fans didn’t wait 1,500 days for nothing. The purpose of this release was to fulfill his recording contract with the record label Def Jam Recordings so that he could start his own. It has since been confirmed that “Boys Don’t Cry” is the name of his new record label.ĭays before the release of “Blonde,” Ocean unveiled a 45-minute visual album with numerous unreleased songs.
The mystery of his work continued when “Boys Don’t Cry” was rumored to be the name of his the album for months. Many say that this is a reference to the singer’s bisexuality. The album is spelled “Blond ,” the male version of the term on Apple Music, and “Blonde ,” the female version of the term, on the hard copy. The two albums contain different phrasing from titles to track list. A slightly different album sold in pop-up shops at the same time. “Blonde” was issued exclusively through Apple Music. Within less than a week of its release, “Blonde” topped the charts and everyone was raving over the 17-track record. Many of his supporters – including myself – grew impatient with the visionary, but many also did not lose faith. The anticipation continued to build while many fans and media outlets continued to share false release dates. Making his first debut in 2011 with his mixtape “Nostalgia, Ultra,” Ocean has perpetually illustrated stories and messages through his lyrics. Over four years after the release of the iconic album “Channel Orange,” Christopher Edwin Breaux, now legally known as Frank Ocean, released yet another beautiful masterpiece titled “Blonde.