Frank Ocean Blond Review
Beautiful, bizarre and emotively resonant and an insanely passionate tale about youth,
consumerism, loneliness, drugs and of course sex.
I remember Ocean’s own rendition of Coldplay’s Strawberry Swing, it was one of his most emotional
takes on mortality, youth and heart break. Nostalgia Ultra has become a nostalgic classic and Frank
has continued his hot streak with this powerful ballad. The album itself features very different artists
such as Kendrick Lamar and James Blake, Beyonce and Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood a well
as Yung Lean. It’s impossible to recognise the features except for Outkasts most elusive member
Andre 3 stacks scene stealing solo one minute performance about the state of hip hop (poor Drake).
The features are as interesting as the album itself.
Unlike his fellow counterparts such as Beyonce and Lamar, Frank Ocean has crafted a piece that isn’t
about race or social commentary but of a youth that lacks innocence and is governed by free will.
Rather than having themes of freedom and race, the album is radically different in the form that it
covers themes of a youthful nature. Frank reintroduces the themes of youth in songs such as “Ivy”
and recurring themes of heartbreak and loneliness in “Solo” and “ White Ferrari”. He also dabbles
with sexuality in the aptly titled “ Good Guy”. He also revisits the unrequited love theme that is
rampant in his debut album “ Channel Orange” and he continues this emotional trend in “ Blonde”
with “self control”. He continues the themes of a tortured soul with more grace and precision that it
leaves one breathless at the meticulously crafted and heavily anticipated masterpiece.
The album is mostly reliant on guitar riffs and Oceans voice is distorted throughout the album, in
“Nikes” his voice is manipulated twice as well as on his final track “Futura Free”. One might not be
wrong in mentioning how the album lacks structure and wanders off aimlessly however this seems
to be a rrather artistic front from Frank to create a chaotic mixture of feelings. The change vocally
allows Ocean to liven up the lyrics, in “ self Control” the listener is able to journey along with him as
he loses his confidence after he is rejected by the person he wishes to be intimate with.
A near perfect album full of soul and what more can be expected from an artist that has redefined
not the just the genre but the attitude of it as a whole. He has cemented yet another work of
brilliance and dedication to the art of soul and what more can be said about his naysayers except
“SHUT THE FUCK UP I DON’T WANT YOUR CONVERSATION”.
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