Blonde

About

<b>100 Best Albums</b> In the four years between Frank Ocean’s debut album <i>channel ORANGE</i> and his second, <i>Blonde</i>, he had revealed some of his private life—he published a post on social media about having been in love with a man—but still remained as mysterious and skeptical towards fame as ever, teasing new music sporadically and then disappearing like a wisp on the wind. Behind great innovation, however, is a massive amount of work, and so when <i>Blonde</i> was released one day after a 24-hour streaming performance art piece (<i>Endless</i>) and alongside a limited-edition magazine entitled <i>Boys Don’t Cry</i>, his slipperiness felt more like part of a carefully considered mystique. Even the apparent indecision over the album title’s official spelling can be seen in hindsight as being characteristically mischievou. <i>Endless</i> featured the mundane beauty of Ocean woodworking in a studio, soundtracked by abstract and meandering ambient music. <i>Blonde</i> built on those ideas and imbued them with more form, taking a left-field, often minimalist approach to his breezy harmonies and ever-present narrative lyricism. His confidence was crucial to the risk of creating a big multimedia project for a sophomore album, but it also extended to his songwriting—his voice surer of itself (“Solo”), his willingness to excavate his weird impulses more prominent (“Good Guy” and “Pretty Sweet,” among others). .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →