As cliche as it sounds, I don’t have a singular favorite album. Every album brings its unique thoughts, ideas, sounds, and emotions. Although, if I had to choose one of my favorite albums to listen to at any point in my day, Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” would be a worthy choice. Frank’s sophomore album after a monumental first breakout album, “Channel Orange,” earned him his first Grammy for “best urban contemporary album.” Four years later, Frank released his latest and most well-known album to date, Blonde. Frank is the main producer on this album, also working with hip-hop producers Malay Ho and Om’Mas Keith.
Sonically, the entire album has a very nostalgic tone, whether that is from personal experience based on my sister’s incessant listening of this project or the bittersweet reminiscent scenes the lyrics provoke. The album’s main premise is Frank looking back at his life through all his ex-lovers and missed opportunities. He lumps these past thoughts and partners into ever-merging memories that mesh into each other.
Not one song is specific to one part of Frank’s life, and it picks from different points connected in their own way. Timelines are scattered throughout the album, referencing events that don’t happen yet in the beginning, and picking up ideas brought up earlier in the album is quite common.
The entire experience of the album is ultra-realistic in terms of how we perceive memories. They are boundless and are triggered randomly by familiar senses and feelings. Have you ever seen a beautiful sunset and thought about a disastrous hurricane that tore through your hometown? Frank writes about this experience in “Solo,” referring to the “bull and a matador dueling in the sky.”
Frank recognizes in the album’s final track, “Futura Free,” that he has successfully built a music career. He has listened to his mother’s advice, embracing his “roots,” and stopping his drug abuse habits. At the song’s end, old interview recordings from a group, including Frank, fill the silence after the vocals fade, leaving the soft synth chords echoing in the background. The sequence is filled with responses from teenagers, many in their early teens or younger, responding to the open-ended questions with innocent answers. Frank is reminiscing on this time as a simpler time when you could hang out with friends in your own bubble and talk to other kids. To put it in his own words, “You ain’t a kid no more, we’ll never be those kids again.”
-Joaquin (Social Media Team)