Not like anyone was counting or anything, but it had been four years, a month and ten days since Frank Ocean released his last album. The debut album, "Channel Orange," was released back in 2012 and was a massive breakthrough success that really put him on the experimental R&B map.
Unfortunately, when Ocean decided to lay low for a while, people lost their minds wondering when he was going to be releasing another epic album. Rumors and misinformation about Frank Ocean's new album's release were spread all over the internet making it appear that Frank Ocean was just playing with our feelings and that was just not a good look for him.
I can’t even imagine the amount of pressure this poor guy was under after going M.I.A for as long as he did and to know that his fans were expecting this new project to top "Channel Orange" (If that was even possible). I know that I myself had such high expectations for Frank's new album for the reasons being that "Channel Orange" is one of my favorite albums of all time and well he did have four years to perfect this album.
Alright so one of the biggest differences that I heard between "Channel Orange" and "Blond" was how much more simplistic "Blond" sounds rather than "Channel Orange". But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. "Channel Orange" was definitely an album that was so intricate with detail from metaphors Frank used to his purposeful skits. I felt more intrigued when listening to "Channel Orange" because Frank incorporated so many hidden messages about his sexuality and I feel that same goes for "Blond" but it just wasn't as clever as "Channel Orange." Frank was definitely feeling a lot more experimental with Blond and I think that's what some people weren't a fan of.
Another noticeable difference I heard was in Ocean's vocals and choice of autotune... I know it's been four years and artists change their styles all the time but I definitely was not expecting to hear a high-pitched chipmunky voice during a majority of the song "Nikes", the very first track on "Blond." Personally, I think Frank Ocean is one of the most talented R&B vocalists so primarily I was just confused as to why he wouldn't want to show that off.
On a good note, tracks like "Ivy", "Pink + White", "Self-Control" and "Nights" won me over with their beautiful production and well thought out lyrics. Those are really the songs that I was expecting to hear on this album. "Pink + White" especially has my heart and I wasn't sure why at first but after doing some research, I found that Pharrell Williams actually provided the production for that track as he did for songs like "Sweet Life" on "Channel Orange." After figuring that out, I realized that if I only really liked the one song on "Blond" that sounded similar to a song on "Channel Orange," then it's possible that I favor the Frank Ocean from four years ago more.
Now I was curious about others opinions about the two albums so I went to twitter and well...
many people had a similar opinion to mine. Something about "Channel Orange" is just classic and it's an album that was really hard for any artist to top. Frank Ocean himself was unsuccessful!
Overall, I did enjoy "Blond" and love the fact that Frank Ocean is back in the game but I feel that It was so highly anticipated and since "Channel Orange" was so well received, "Blond" just couldn't live up to the hype.
