Hey everyone! Welcome to this weeks blog post. Today we are going to talk about the album Blond by Frank Ocean. Hope you enjoy! 

As per usual, before we get into the album itself, let’s discuss some background of the artist. Frank Ocean grew up in New Orleans after being born in Long Beach and then moving to Los Angeles in his late teens to pursue music. He started off by ghostwriting for various artists such as Justin Bieber and Beyoncé. In 2011, he released his first mixtape, nostalgia, ULTRA. After that, he released Channel ORANGE in 2012 and two albums in 2016, Endless, and Blond. He released his mixtape, nostalgia, ULTRA, on his Tumblr and had let fans know via twitter. He did this because his label wasn’t all that supportive of the songs he had been producing. His second album, Channel ORANGE, was released on itunes in 2012. Both of these albums hit the charts immediately and had raving reviews. Same goes for his albums Endless and Blond that he released in 2016. The last time he released music was a single in 2020, Cayando. Ocean is a crowd favorite and although he hasn’t release music in a little while, people love him and listen to his existing albums all the time and are always waiting for new music. 

Let’s get into the album! 

First off, here is the track list for the album, Blond.

As mentioned before, this album hit the charts almost instantly and people loved it. Let’s look at some reviews! The first article comes from pitchfork, which rates the album 9/10, which is very good coming from them. They talked about how this album was self-released rather than going through his label and how this album was the main event as compared to the album Endless he released prior to this. They say that since some of the songs have large periods without any drums and it could be seen as background music until his voice enters. They say “…Frank’s voice enters, and the overall quietness turns into a soft spotlight, capturing attention.” They talk about how although a lot of his songs consist of a lot of “plain strumming on the electric guitar, they still mesmerize.” This article has all good things to say about the way these songs sound and how the sound is so beautiful that it doesn’t need heavy drums in order to be successful. The next review comes is from an article from The Guardian. The article starts off with “ Frank Ocean: Blonde review – a baffling and brilliant five-star triumph.” The article praises the album immediately stating “it’s undeniably one of the most baffling, contrary and intriguing records put out by a major pop star –“ And state that all the songs on this album are “identifiable bangers.” In this article as well, the authors talk about the tone. The authors here say the tone is “muted and introspective” and full of spectacular guitar. They talk about the lyrics being elliptical and fragmented and touch on a lot of important topics. Frank Ocean is loved by many and almost every review on this album talks about how good it is. 

As for my opinion, I recently got into Frank Ocean within the past year after being introduced to him by my younger brother. I love his music but Blond has to be my favorite of his albums. The songs on it fit the exact style of music I feel like i’m always looking to add to my playlists. They are songs that I listen to all the time and are go to songs on a sunny day. They have such a beautiful tone and the instrumentals seem so detailed and done so well I love listening to every aspect of the songs on this album. 

Here are some links to listen! 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3mH6qwIy9crq0I9YQbOuDf?si=78f96SOgTdqFN592FOr7Ig

Apple Music:https://music.apple.com/us/album/blonde/1146195596

Hope you all enjoyed! Keep an eye out for my next post!