Frank Ocean
Blonde

Release Date: 2016 | Tracklist

If anything in the last two months, it's that Frank Ocean has taken our hearts to every place on the emotional spectrum. Especially over whether he was gonna release the anticipating sequel to his bristling studio debut Channel Orange, or not. It began with the library card links that alluded the hungry masses to believe and to assume that he was about to drop what was originally titled as "Boys Don't Cry", throwing out July as the target destination for it. The end result? Absolute hysteria and dismay after the sweltering month came and went. After that was quelled as absolute nonsense, weeks later on August 5th, at the literal dead of night, an unexpected live stream from Brooklyn emerged on his website to the bright array of the album-hungry savages that swarmed in, only to find out that once again, manipulation strikes back again. Weird, considering how the New York Times reported that it was coming that very same day. Anger and disappointment ensued, and "Frank Ocean album jokes" became the brand new social media meme. Finally, he broke through on August 19th, with the live stream changing that would be worth it's while in double, literally. First came the appetizer, with the visual abstraction Endless, which was really an grandiose, avant-garde journey further magnified by its colorless visuals. If that hadn't already ravished your appetite, then you're in for the main entree at hand. That is finally here to be feasted on to the delight of hip-hop and music fans alike, with the seemingly modern, romanticized "Blond" rectified just less than 24 hours after the minds of the music community were already mind-blown. Calling this surely a blunt "snap back to f****** reality" is surely an understatement.

Indulgence is one thing to satisfy yourself to your hearts content with, but too much can simply be addictive and intoxicating. In this crazy, advanced time that we live in, that's literally flooded with the enticement of luxury, power, and love. However, it isn't everything as you may believe it is. In utter truth, that's the very thing Ocean is going against, and wants you the listener to do the same to. The atmospheric feel of this sunbathed, yet lustful and remorseful journey matches the brightness and positivity of the fantastical fun that comes along in this humid time of year, but alongside it the negative energy that comes along by returning back to that reality. It's a true realization that after that incredible time that you or so many just experienced during the summer, you're about to be forcibly reinserted back to the crappy blandness that's existent in your life known as reality, voided of all these things Ocean is trying to get you to turn away from. That is visibly visualized in the kaleidoscopic, nightly "Nikes", a seemingly romanticized critique of the luxurious possessions that is uttered as a poison in Frank's eyes, and the perfect example of how he's trying to snap you back to the real world. Underneath a psychedelic, dreamy guitar that is triply paired with vicerstcing bass and conflictive, neon synths, it's a symbolic reminder of the tension that arises because of the glitz that is poisoning us to addict ourselves into. It's painfully emphasized with emotive, passionate lines like "speaking of the, don't know what got into people/Devil be possessing homies/demons try to body jump", reiterating how we are intoxicated by the highs of power and fun, but that Frank isn't having any of it as he is jumping out of the fire. To him, his artwork and his artistic style is what defines the man's life, not what fixtures he's amassed. It's something that he emphasizes not only to himself, but to make a statement to us to value ourselves on, with the right things instead of the wrong. Talk about spirituality being echoed out.

The toxicity of the power and addiction of power, love, and sexual intuition in general, is the kind of brokerage you're receiving in this heating explosion of art. The desire to rebel against all of it. It's analyzed further upon in the mommy-voiced interlude "Be Yourself", which feels like the musical version of a federally-sponsored anti-drug commercial sheerly. It gets reanalyzed once again in the form of social networking in the interlude "Facebook Story", a sad story from one of Ocean's producers SebastiAn about how social media can essentially destroy relationships because of the fear of secrets and infidelity hidden away from one another. It's also brought into full scope when it bodes to romance in the warm, bright heartbreaker "Ivy", which bellowing under heavenly, serene synths, makes for an interesting emotional contradiction. Somber, emotive lines like "I thought I was dreaming when you said you love me/it started from nothing/i had no chance to prepare" display the fantasy of how love can be such an amazing thing, until your lover manipulates and strikes your heart to its coldest. Simply told, love isn't what it seems, and that's the harsh reality Ocean tries to mesh up together as he does with every other luxurious entity our minds seem built on intoxicating ourselves on. He's telling you to snap out of it! None of it is exactly as you envision it out to be! Finding therapy in the right things is what will do yourself diligence, and it's what he's trying to get you to discover.

In convincing conclusion, Blond lives and matches up to the shuttering hype that prowled itself upon for the last two months in the eyes of the masses. It's quite an emotional downer when you consider its defiant premise however. If you want to talk about an rebellion that is existent on Frank Ocean's conscience, that's literally the case right here in this one hour enlightenment. It's epitomized in the therapeutic life closer "Futura Free", a robotic-esque kind of track that visibly showers how his rebellious tendencies has taken him to a better state of mind than it did before, especially after the feelings that he expressed throughout the majority of this psychological reflection. His conscience throughout this album is poured in rage and weeping heartbreak, especially in its romanticized chapters. It's evident specifically because of his inability to connect with that lover deeper. It's the same once more to him when it comes to the addictive counter-types of money and power. It's why it isn't what it's meant to be. Whilst this is built upon extravagant, flourishing landscapes that feel literally as if you're immersed into the same fantastical dream world that Frank is trying to get you out of, it balances out with its eye opening lyricism and it's defiant themes on indulgence on the wrong things, and how nothing you visualize it out to be will ever be what it is meant to be. To snap back to the reality of it all. It isn't promised, nor is it gonna turn out promising in the end. Focusing on what will truly set you free and abound is the ultimate emphasis that Frank wants you to take yourself to, and after bridging through this emotional and atmospherical whirlwind of an album, it couldn't be more true as said from the sensation who's already broken barriers in his respective field. Bravo.

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