The following skit puts us on the receiving end of a voicemail from Frank’s mom instructing him not to use drugs in college, which is immediately and fantastically contrasted with the opening lyric of highlight ‘Solo’- “Hand me a towel I’m dirty dancing by myself / Gone off tabs of that acid”. “Cannonball off the porchside / older kids try it off the roof” Frank’s tenor, speak-singing style croons, harking back to the singer’s childhood before he parallels with his own romantic development at the time – “Just the same way you showed me”. ‘Ivy’ touches further on Frank’s past but with further focus on nostalgia, with Frank pleading “Everything sucked back then / We were friends”.įrank Ocean, born and raised in New Orleans, moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music, where he ghost-wrote for Beyonce and Justin Bieber, among othersĪfter this two song exposition sets the stage for an album of stripped-back but beautiful ballads, ‘Pink + White’ takes a left turn by presenting itself as a jazzy, fully-formed single, with live percussion, backing vocals, and darting basslines that wouldn’t sound out of place on Channel Orange (production credits from Pharrell here are no surprise). ‘Ivy’ follows up with lo-fi, grainy guitar arpeggios and warbling strums, evoking a bareness and intimacy that pop music’s move toward more minimalist R&B (see The Weeknd) bypasses in favor of shrouded mystique. The opener also serves to introduce Frank’s main lyrical themes Blonde tracks are filled with juxtaposition between Frank’s personal relationship-inspired musings (“You got a roommate he’ll hear what we do / It’s only awkward if you’re fuckin him too”) and moments of greater existential clarity (“We’ll let you guys prophesy / We gon’ see the future first / Living so the last night feels like a past life”). Echoing backbeats that sound like they’re churning through murky water lay a foundation upon which Frank sings in a pitched-up, autotuned vocal that feels hollow and weak next to the strength of his natural singing voice, which finally enters the fray amid a cacophony of acoustic guitars and harps. Opener ‘Nikes’ introduces the off-kilter, minimalist production aesthetic the 28-year-old chose for Blonde, which stands in stark contrast to the lavish string and synth arrangements present throughout Channel Orange. Although Endless is a strong enough record on its own due to the gargantuan talent of its creator, Blonde is a modern masterpiece a deconstruction of both traditional genres and the traditional album structure that also succeeds in poetically gracing themes of dating culture, drug usage, nostalgia and sexuality, all backdropped against sports cars speeding through hazy Los Angeles summers. Ultimately, Frank dropped two albums a visual album, ala Beyonce, titled Endless, and a more traditional LP, Blonde. On Monday, he made a rare public appearance at the Met Gala where he walked the carpet with a mechanical baby in his arms.The enigmatic Frank Ocean rewrote the book on R&B with his landmark second album, 2012’s Channel Orange, and the anticipation surrounding his latest release has been bordering on sensational. He was originally supposed to headline the 2020 festival alongside Travis Scott and Rage Against the Machine before it was canceled in the wake of the pandemic. Ocean, who launched his luxury brand Homer this year, will headline Coachella in 2023.
Between 20, he released a series of one-off tracks including “DHL,” “In My Room,” “Dear April,” “Chanel,” “Cayendo,” and “Biking” featuring Tyler, the Creator and JAY-Z.
It’s been over five years since Ocean released his last album Blonde. It’s unclear who he is meeting with as he plots his long-awaited comeback. Since exiting his Def Jam deal following the release of his Endless visual album in 2016, Ocean has avoided doing business with the major labels.
Ocean has hired seasoned attorney Laurie Soriano of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano to represent him as he takes meetings and plays music for executives. A new report from HITS Daily Double claims that the reclusive singer is in the process of shopping a new album, which is said to be “fu**ing great.”