Who is Frank Ocean? Frank Ocean is a singer and songwriter and he's back! Yes its here, the album is finally here. This is Frank Ocean 2nd major label album, third project overall, his last project was released back in 2012 titled Channel Orange which won him a Grammy in 2013 for best urban contemporary album. Frank has been keeping a low key profile since 2013 and fans were waiting to hear something new from the man himself, he released a few tracks here and there via his tumblr page and in July 2015 he launched a website called boysdontcry.co and announced he was dropping a new album and a magazine titled "Boys Don't Cry" and that we were gonna get two versions of the project, and unfortunately it didn't drop and left many fans and myself very disappointed. In 2016 he was featured on Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album on the new version of Wolves and later it was made into a separate track. Few months Frank updated his site with a library card and hinted was finished and album was gonna drop sometime in July with on of the dates blurred out, once again album never dropped, But something did happened the early morning of Saturday. The website was updated once again with a video live stream that it on looped with the apple music logo on top, confirming that the album was slated to be an exclusive to apple music. Frank would pop up time to time building something which it was reveled to be a staircase and new music was playing in the background, later on August 19 he was revealed to be a visual album titled Endless. Now we before I dive into this review for Blonde, I wanna talk about Endless for a bit.
Endless was released on August 19th, it's a 45 minute long visual album, reportedly everyone thought Boy's Don't cry was scrapped and this was the album but it revealed that Endless was a separate project and Frank was gonna drop the sophomore sometime that weekend. I though this project was pretty decent, my main issue was some of the mixing on some tracks but overall I think the project held together like glue and it was fine. Endless had features from Sampha, Jazmine Sullivan, Rita Zebdi and James Blake, both men have done work together in the past. One of favorite highlights of the project was the track "(At Your Best) You Are Love" a tribute to Aaliyah, she covered the song that was originally sung by the Isley Brothers. The next night Frank dropped a video for a track called Nikes and it was the first single leading up to this project. The album is no longer called Boy's Don't Cry and its called "Blonde", or "Blond" on the pop up shop psychical copy of the album and has two songs that weren't on the iTunes/apple music version. They're are no credited features but the album features Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar who i think just had writing credits, Frank's mother is on here on a skit, Andre 3000 returns here on a interlude, James Blake, French DJ Sebastian is on another skit, Swedish rapper Yung Lean, and Japanese rapper KOHH is on the Nike's pop up version of the album. Contributes on this album include Kanye West, Tyler The Creator, Pharrell, Johnny Greenwood from Radio, David Bowie, Beatles, Elliot Smith and many more names. Looking at the people who were involved or inspirations with this project the exceptions and hype was at a all time, with that introduction lets dive right into this.
Blonde kicks off with the single track "Nikes". The vocals do take some time to get use to with the chipmunk vocal effects and with the chopped and screwed vocals too, so its a weird start to for the album. I honestly like the track after a few listen, like the whole theme is about materialism with the references of Nikes shoe to pleasure. I do enjoy the second half where the vocals effects are gone and suggests the reasoning for the effects on the first half was Frank was in drugged state and he's coming down from his high, its a pretty cool concept and loving the dreamy production that fits well with the whole song. Next track "Ivy" I would say one of my favorite if not many favorites tracks on here. Frank is talking about his past mistake and his first love and has regrets for not being mentally prepared for his first saying that he love him and he didn't say it back. Frank sings later in the track he sad and upset how it all went down but at the end of the day he thinks the relationship was a high point in his life. "Pink+White" has the best the production of here, its very dreamy and has like this Beach Boys vibe to it. I know Pharrell on his hands but shout out to Tyler as well this is his best work i have heard in a long time, and Beyoncé vocals are quite faint here but she did her job well. The track here details more in depth with Frank's youth and past lover's which pretty much is the whole theme for the entire project also with his drug use with white being cocaine and pink with vagina. The vocals on here are wonderful and you can sense Frank's has matured from his first project to now. "Be Yourself" is a voicemail from who i thought it was Frank's mother but its the women from the "Not Just Money" track on Channel Orange and basically encourages Frank to be himself and not use drugs, its a cute skit.
Solo is another favorite of mine with Frank touches life on the road when he was touring and the song has two interpretations of Frank he likes being alone but also chorus he talks about being so low on earth burning and he wants to get high to get to heaven, its a straight forward track but its laid back and love the double meaning on the track it's clever. "Skyline To" has Frank singing about random thoughts from sex to drugs and Kendrick can be heard faintly to further Frank's thoughts. Tyler handles production on here and its very dreamy with the organ chords, and the jazz vibe as well it actually put me in a trance at the end of the track its very beautiful. I like the metaphor piece in my hands worth twice than a friend, meaning a joint is his inner peace and it has more value than two friends. "Self Control" theme is Frank sees a person that caught his attention and desires to make love with this person but as the progresses each verse and chorus the tone changes and Frank is breaking down, losing confidence in himself and being defeated from rejection. You hear the pain the in the vocals and it's wonderful and perfect, the production is wonderful with the slick guitar and gave me a chill down my spine, its so good. "Good Guy" is another interlude, its pretty short and simple about Frank's blind date with another male and learns that the guy feels like the night is pointless and Frank wished it was something more.
"Nights" has many different layers here, The first part is very rap/sung while part two is a sadder, R&B vibe. The transition on the track is wonderful, its well oil machine here with the first part another past love and memories about there relationship and when the tracks transitions we learn they met after they moved to Houston after they left after the events from Hurricane Katrina. In part 2 the vocals are pitch a bit and you can hear with the tone and vocals how he felt with the aftermath of the hurricane with the melancholy tone and how after some stressful days he don't wanna speak and rather smoke weed cause its cheap vacation and getaway from life. "Solo (Reprise)" is another interlude and the a rare verse from Andre 3000 and being a huge Outkast, you know damn well i love this track, wished they did a track together here but overall its good to hear 3 Stacks again, we still need that solo album from Andre. "Pretty Sweet" if i had to pick from my least favorite tracks it would be this on here, in my opinion it was all over the place and was confused what was going on here. I don't think the track is trash, its just isn't with me with the mixture of the strings and synths but i did like the drums at the end.
We are present with another skit with French DJ Sebastian "Facebook Story" its a interview basically about Sebastian recalls how his relationship ended over accusations on Facebook, it just seen random to put on the album. The interview follows up with another interlude with a cover of Close to You by Stevie Wonder of a cover of Close to You by Burt Bachharach Hal David, its a nice cover and a nod to with Prismizer technology, its a cool effect. White Ferrari is another solid track with features from Bon Iver towards the end of the track, James Blake is also here and you can sense his vibe here and the John Lennon and Paul McCartney have a writing credit which is odd but its a sample from John Lennon and the Paul McCartney track "Here, There and Everywhere", its very dreamy, reading the lyrics the white Ferrari Frank is a metaphor to as his lover where he does with couple tracks in the past and he mentions his cocaine use in the past once again, its a solid track overall. Seigfried has a few references and possible meanings to track with the Norse mythology warrior from the folklore to a British war poet of the same name, but reading into it references the Norse warrior how Frank doesn't feel brave anymore with the same traits and beliefs with the warrior's masculinity. Frank also borrows lyrics from Elliot Smith's song "A Fond Farewell" a song about overcoming drug addiction and reforming one self. The difference here is Frank discomfort with society and bid his old goodbye for ever with the whole spoken work later at the end of the track, its a sad track if you listen and the concept of the track overall, its beautiful and well put together here.
Winding down here with the last tracks here, Godspeed is next after White Ferrari, Godspeed share its title with the screenplay Frank wrote on the magazine. He wrote its basically a reimagined part of his boyhood as he quoted. You can sense Frank's maturity from his past to now I mentioned earlier where he assurance to others who maybe going through the same thing he has too, to wish you luck and safety to your journey, its a very powerful song, has the gospel feel it to and my favorite vocal performances from Frank on here. The last track "Futura Free" I am sort of indifferent to it, I do enjoy the message on here how feels on his journey with fame and the accomplishments he has done, lyrically he just rambles on and on about random topics and he loses focus and the vocals I didn't care much for, I think the track didn't have the vocal effects and would stay on topic here which the third verse he raps about his rise to fame a bit. It ends the album kind of weak in my opinion here but I do appreciate what he was singing about.
Final Verdict here is that Blonde lived up to the hype, I love this record here. The album does take a few detours with the random skits and interludes but doesn't make the album weak at all and they work quietly in a way. Lyrically most of the songs deal with the same topics but it give a story about who Frank is and how he matured over the years and is a new person and how he still manages to keep a very low key prolife from the spotlight. The album starts off a bit weak and album ends weak too but the rest of the tracks work together amazingly. I hope people don't find this album boring or aimless cause does strip back and all over the place but the album did hit me on a personal level from Frank raw emotions it travels along the way. Thank You Frank for this album I know you very hard of this project and the wait was a long time but it was worth it, hope you get some rest sir. That's all for today, Robert Garcia out.
Favorite tracks: Nights, Ivy, Pink+White, Self Control, Skyline, Solo, Solo (Reprise), Seigfried, Godspeed, White Ferrari, Nikes, Good Guy
Least Favorite Tracks: Pretty Sweet
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