Something about the music of Frank Ocean is infectious.
He is the rare type of artist that you can listen to his albums over and over without getting tired of any song. Getting famous from his first solo album, Channel Orange, which was a blend of RnB and synth sounds, with dreamy guitars in the background on a couple songs, Forrest Gump being a good example of this. But as far as albums go, it was just a very good RnB album. However Ocean strikes Gold on his second album, Blond. This transcends his genre, getting people like Beyonce to fill in for backing vocals, something you wouldn’t expect an artist with her reputation to be used for. Each song is consistent in it’s dream like nature, but is different enough you never get bored and is always changing. For example the song Self Control starts off as a smooth guitar and vocal song, but goes into an echoing end chorus, with glitching effects in the background. Songs like Siegfried and White Ferrari deliver, again, a dreamy sound, with the former utilizing an electric guitar with scalic melodies, over some beautiful Vocals by Frank, which then go into a spoken word verse, then going into a small chorus.The latter on the other hand starts off as some synth bass as the first verse begins, but by half way through this is replaced with an acoustic guitar and just the Vocals, after which it concludes with a choral crescendo, and then simmering down with more glitching sounds as Frank’s voice slowly peters out.
This is interwoven with stories of people that Frank knows, for example, Facebook story, a monologue with the message, Social media is stupid, care for the people who are with you in your life right now, don’t view them through a screen. Likewise another story is the cleverly deceptive, Be Yourself. A track consisting of a message left by Franks mother, telling him not to drugs. On one level its a mother lecturing their son on drugs, but at the same time the message she is getting across is, never compromise, you are you.
More to the point, the lyrics of every song seem pertinent to Frank. This becomes very clear by the second song Ivy, where Frank talks about hurting and being hurt by those we love, when the song finishes, there is a load of banging that goes on for too long to just be a funny little end bit. It comes off as Frank throwing guitars around the room where he just recorded Ivy, due to anger of someone he cared about. The already mentioned Siegfried is another good example of this, Frank’s lyrics talk about just wanting to settle down, live a quite life with loved ones where he doesn’t have to deal with too many people. And that’s why Blond is so good. Each song creates a nostalgic bubble in which you, the listener can relate to Frank’s personal story in a song, but at the same time they can reflect on their own life, own relationships and experiences. Nostalgia is a powerful thing which Frank knows. So far, he has only released 3 albums, 4 if you count his Visual album Endless. With a lengthy gap between them. This is because Frank is more concentrated on living. So he can look back on what he has done, and write music about it.
Reflection and nostalgia are the themes of this album, and it takes an incredible artist to be able to get you to emote to not only his but your own life at the same time. I highly recommend you listen to it.