173 this week), has since been certified platinum by the RIAA, and has surfaced on all-time album lists while its legacy is still in its infancy. There’s a reason it still floats on and off of the Billboard 200 chart five years later (most recently at No. But if you spun “Self Control” at your most emotionally vulnerable state, “held together” may not be the right terminology.īlonde has been the album we turn to when we need a good cry, when we’re searching for a moment of reflection, and when the only thing we desire is a French producer to remind us of the dangers of social media. We patiently await the next one.When it was hell on earth and when the city was on fire, Frank Ocean’s Blonde-released on this date in 2016-held us together for half a decade of pandemics, political turmoil, and poolside convos turned failed romances. It’s a worthy follow up to ‘Channel Orange,’ although I think I do prefer the former, this release is great and cemented Ocean as one of the greats of our generation. There so many great songs on this ‘White Ferrari,’ ‘Nights,’ ‘Self Control,’ ‘Good Guy’ amongst them. ‘Solo’ is next, a quietly lush song which also received a lot of radio in Aus. A funny, if not heartwarming moment on the album. Next up is the interlude, ‘Be Yourself,’ featuring a voicemail of a mother telling her child not to consume alcohol or drugs. On ‘Ivy’ he sings “We'll never be those kids again,” perhaps a reference to ‘Super Rich Kids’ from ‘Channel Orange.’ ‘Pink + White’ was co-written and produced by Pharrell Williams, and features the vocals of his aforementioned friend, Beyoncé.

Thanks to triple j’s habit of not necessarily only supporting singles, most of the tracks are familiar to me on this album. For the first 3 minutes of the song, his vocals are very affected before finally delivering his unaffected “no filter” vocals. Only one official single was released, ‘Nikes,’ the opening track. The production takes its cues from Brian Wilson, while the vocals are comaprible to Prince at times. It’s more experimental than his debut, featuring sounds of psych pop, avante garde soul and RnB. ‘Blond’ was recorded across three cities in three famous studios Electric Lady (New York), Abbey Road Studios (London) and Henson (LA, the location of Charlie Chaplin’s old studios). Mere hours later, in the early hours of the next morning, Ocean dropped ‘Blond’ (taking a leaf out of friend, Beyoncé’s book - #81). Instead came the visual release, ‘Endless,’ which fulfilled his obligations to Def Jam. 3 years in the making, Ocean didn’t want to give his next record, ‘Blond’ to the label. Following the release of his ground-breaking album, ‘Channel Orange’ (#148), Frank Ocean owed label, Def Jam, one more album.

Ranking frank ocean albums