#79 Frank Ocean, 'Blond' (2016)

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Following the release of his ground-breaking album, ‘Channel Orange’ (#148), Frank Ocean owed label, Def Jam, one more album. 3 years in the making, Ocean didn’t want to give his next record, ‘Blond’ to the label. Instead came the visual release, ‘Endless,’ which fulfilled his obligations to Def Jam. Mere hours later, in the early hours of the next morning, Ocean dropped ‘Blond’ (taking a leaf out of friend, Beyoncé’s book - #81). ‘Blond’ was recorded across three cities in three famous studios; Electric Lady (New York), Abbey Road Studios (London) and Henson (LA, the location of Charlie Chaplin’s old studios). It’s more experimental than his debut, featuring sounds of psych pop, avante garde soul and RnB. The production takes its cues from Brian Wilson, while the vocals are comaprible to Prince at times.

Only one official single was released, ‘Nikes,’ the opening track. For the first 3 minutes of the song, his vocals are very affected before finally delivering his unaffected “no filter” vocals. Thanks to triple j’s habit of not necessarily only supporting singles, most of the tracks are familiar to me on this album. On ‘Ivy’ he sings “We'll never be those kids again,” perhaps a reference to ‘Super Rich Kids’ from ‘Channel Orange.’ ‘Pink + White’ was co-written and produced by Pharrell Williams, and features the vocals of his aforementioned friend, Beyoncé. Next up is the interlude, ‘Be Yourself,’ featuring a voicemail of a mother telling her child not to consume alcohol or drugs. A funny, if not heartwarming moment on the album. ‘Solo’ is next, a quietly lush song which also received a lot of radio in Aus. Great, yet unconventional song. There so many great songs on this; ‘White Ferrari,’ ‘Nights,’ ‘Self Control,’ ‘Good Guy’ amongst them. It’s a worthy follow up to ‘Channel Orange,’ although I think I do prefer the former, this release is great and cemented Ocean as one of the greats of our generation. We patiently await the next one.

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