Frank Ocean
Blonde

Release Date: 2016 | Tracklist

After having seen the list of the best albums of the Pitchfork decade, you will be left with several doubts about the way in which the portal has to decide the list in conjunction with all the critics who must be behind the company. Although the majority of the points on the list are within everything in a cohesive order, assuring the criticism they made of the albums in question, the other percentage is surprising than data from the middle of the list. The dimension of gaps that the list has is very high, but what comes to the subject here is the first place, which was occupied by Blonde of Frank Ocean.

Frank Ocean became known thanks to his mixtape Nostalgia ultra, a primitive version of Blonde, and his appearance in the Odd future collective, but where he really stood out was in this mixtape. Here he mixed so much R&B with samples, for example, of Strawberry Swing by Coldplay, giving a very Kanye mix, destroying the brand that the singers of that genre were having. Adding, as the title says, the strong letters that Frank handled full of pure nostalgia.

When Channel Orange came out, expectations were high. And it really had a general acceptance from people. Developing that nostalgic atmosphere that I had created in the mixtape with many winks to things that we love from our childhood that no longer accompany us, but that Frank recreates in a quite successful way. The bases of the theme of this album went hand in hand with a rather tender backward step, not being the typical hopeless sad look.

While Channel Orange had universal acceptance, not everyone was satisfied. Thus he made himself wait 4 years until giving signs of life, launching a magazine and two albums: Endless and Blonde. Although Endless came out at the same time as Blonde, he was totally overshadowed by his brother.

Endless had already anticipated his arrival with a promotional video, which made Blonde's departure totally unexpected, and people did not know how to react or what to expect. What happened after perfectly describing the position Pitchfork gave him on the list.

The first time I heard Rubia was something I never expected, and it was disappointing. I went a long time without touching it, until one day I understood, or at least it came to me, what Frank meant here. And it is the definitive version of a whole style that was specifically until the day that Blonde was released. The same can be said that Channel Orange is an Alternative R&B album with some experimentation, but this album is not identified with any specific genre, or that clearly comes to mind. Frank released an album full of choppy emotions and put specifically where he knew he had to go.

It is noted that in songs like Good Guy or Solo (Reprise) Frank's precision is lost and that some of the interludes understand where they are going and what they want to do, but he does not feel comfortable when it comes to a full listen, although later from several listeners you become attached to the mother of Be yourself, I do not feel that this clipping put to the proposal of the sea an idea at the height of the trimmed environment built in Godspeed or Pretty Sweet.

Frank Ocean is characterized by his voice that is camouflaged within a particular vagueness, and that after a turn of tone gives it some strength, resulting in an emotional development, since he feels close. This is only multiplied more by his lyrics, which is the column of Frank's entire career. All this detailed collage of his memories are clarified thanks to his way of expressing himself based on his strangely familiar lyrics. And it is not that I tell you, but that I live with you again. He is reliving those feelings and inviting to see you again together. Highlighting the relationship with the material released by Bon Iver a year earlier, 22 A Million, which is also heading towards a project without a basic genre guide, although Bon Iver tried to transmit scenes based on a collage of quite warm sounds covered in cold cutbacks, in a mess that only Justin Vernon can understand. Frank's case is not the same. Sharing the idea, he is going to a fairly organized terrain in his parts, although capable not as balanced as Channel Orange. Blonde is a brand in itself, consciously highlighting what people's search for popular music of the past decade was, to be represented by a genre or style as a brand, a mask that Frank wore to be able to share his deepest moments, which surely more than one could relive with him. Blonde may have gaps, but she does it in the most familiarly perfect way.

Conclusion: This work can well be used to represent a part of the past decade. A part that lies in a continuous search for images to return to, but in a way that we can all understand. There is a part of everyone here, since this album does not close the doors to anyone. To nobody.
Therefore I do not know if it can be said that it is the best album of the decade, since at first one cannot value art in this way, not today, but it is an album that is already part of everyone, and that Well, with all its flaws, it is perfect in its own way. A very blonde way of being.

A: 8/10

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4 excellent