Album Review: Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

24 July 2012 | 1:56 pm | Chris Yates

The album has some misfires due to his extremely experimental nature and enthusiasm for embracing pop and soul and funk and disco and hip hop and easy-listening classic hits, but considering this, it’s really just seamless.

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With two solid mixtapes of original tracks and mashups or bootleg versions of him singing over other songs, there was no question that Frank has a solid grasp on writing and producing a great tune. If anything, the question was more what he could do to make an official album sound like a 'real record' instead of just a collection of tracks. Channel Orange is evidence that really, he's just been toying with us up until now.

Even though the opening track Thinkin Bout You has been around for a while, it's an obvious choice to kick things off. Super Rich Kids is informed absolutely by Benny And The Jets, and its lyrics are a dig at the privileged generation and their desperate search for real relationships. Earl Sweatshirt's guest spot on this track is some of the best work he's committed to tape so far. The centrepiece of the album is the ten-minute masterpiece Pyramid, a song essentially consisting of two five-minute halves, almost entirely different but linked with a common ambience and tempo. Various themes span the two sections of the track as well, and it eventually makes sense to consider it the same event. Lost and Forrest Gump are ultra sugary and poppy, contrasting with the darker and more contemplative sounds of Crack Rock or the gospel of Bad Religion. Sweet Life channels Stevie Wonder effortlessly and continues a theme of LA's bored and rich.  

The album has some misfires due to his extremely experimental nature and enthusiasm for embracing pop and soul and funk and disco and hip hop and easy-listening classic hits, but considering this, it's really just seamless.