Channel Orange

About

The lead-up to Frank Ocean’s culture-shifting debut album, which included the seemingly out-of-nowhere 2011 mixtape <i>Nostalgia, Ultra</i>, was mired in mystery: Who was this elusive, vintage-car-obsessed crooner, and why was he a member of the rambunctiou, uncouth youth movement known as Odd Future? Why wasn’t he signed to a record label—or was he? And how had we never heard of the inventive songwriter behind singles for Brandy, Bieber, and Beyoncé? By the summer of 2012, all had been revealed: through the popularity of <i>Nostalgia, Ultra</i>, Ocean had forced his songwriting deal with Def Jam into a solo career, and <i>channel ORANGE</i> was full of laconic, literary tracks about the underbelly of Southern California life with a Didion-esque intensity and detail. “The best song wasn’t the single, but you weren’t either,” he sings iconically on “Sweet Life,” an acerbic mission statement for an album that defined a new era of laid-back—and disillusioned—R&B which positioned that B-sides are where the richest text reside. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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