Frank Ocean has the voice of an angel, but carries so many demons. This is evident throughout his discography, with 4 albums/mixtapes to his name, making you laugh, think, feel joy, and cry.
4. Nostalgia, Ultra
This was Frank’s first album, and is more of a mixtape if anything. It clearly has his signature sound and vocal range that we have all grown to love, but it is far from his current ability.
It is very clear that this is his first project. The use of short songs, almost skits at times, are there to almost pad the album out. With the exception to the tape player noises between a few songs, they are forgettable and almost annoying at times, because it feels like it stunts the progressive growth through the album and forces you to listen to filler instead of Frank’s beautiful voice. Despite this, ‘Nostalgia, Ultra’ has produced a couple of standout songs not only in this album, but for Frank’s career. ‘Novacane’ is the clear leading track from this album. The subject of the song and the way it is told, with free flowing lyrics and an extremely pleasing backing track, makes this track rise to commercial success and help slingshot Frank’s career. Another song that is somewhat overlooked is ‘American Wedding’. It has an almost country feel to it which makes it different to the rest of the album, which makes you want to listen to it more than most other tracks on this project.
Although ‘Nostalgia, Ultra’ has songs that are memorable and will be featured in a ‘Best of Frank’ if it were to happen at some point, it is not his best album by any stretch of the imagination.
3. Channel Orange
Many people will disagree with me, and probably think ‘Channel Orange’ is Frank’s best work. But if you listen to this album, and then his two later projects just after, you can see the separation in production and lyrical ability.
Although ‘Channel Orange’ has songs that are brilliant, much like the ‘skits’ in ‘Nostalgia, Ultra’, the rest of the songs almost seem like filler. Songs like ‘Pyramids’, ‘Sweet Life’, Super Rich Kids’, ‘Lost’ and ‘Pink Matter’ are all solid tracks that really add to the project, songs like ‘Pilot Jones’ and ‘Fertilizer’ get lost between the better songs around them. In my opinion, ‘Lost’ is the best track on this album, with a catchy hook and lyrics that mean something to Frank, sung perfectly throughout, make this a joy to listen to. Features from Andre 3000, Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator add to the overall wow factor of this album, but even those high-classed names can’t propel this to the top of Frank’s discography for me. One thing I will give this album props for is the inclusion of Pharrell Williams for production on the track ‘Sweet Life’. Pharrell is one of this generation’s best producers and I feel as though he doesn’t only boost the tracks credibility, but will have boosted Frank’s confidence in himself to perform with such a sought after producer by his side in the studio.
‘Channel Orange’ is a great album, but not all the way through. It ranks higher than ‘Nostalgia, Ultra’ due to its more polished feel.
2. Endless
‘Endless’ shows ‘Nostalgia, Ultra’ how to use skits and short songs to their fullest potential. It shows just how far Frank has come in his years in the music industry.
The opening track to this project, ‘(At Your Best) You Are Love’, is beautiful. No better word can describe it, with Franks elevated pitch sending chills down your spine. It sets the bar so high for this album, and it just reaches that bar to the very end. The couple tracks of ‘Rushes’ and ‘Rushes To’ are two tracks that were made to be on this album. Because this project was labelled as a ‘Visual Album’, these two songs make you envision yourself in this song and puts you in Frank’s shoes. This makes this album all the more enjoyable, because it makes you really feel every word that is said on almost every track. The short song ‘Comme des Garcons’ is brilliant as a minute long track and I would love to have heard a full version of it. And that may be the only problem with the album really, the fact that the short songs and skits are so good, that you would prefer them to be full songs and get to listen to more.
‘Endless’ therefore is not Frank’s best album, but it is so close to being that.
1. Blonde
‘Blonde’ is a masterpiece of an album. It incorporates great production, meaningful lyrics, and catchy beats and hooks, making it Frank’s best project to date.
The first three tracks are sublime. ‘Nikes’, ‘Ivy’ and ‘Pink+White’. ‘Nikes’ is a great opening track and sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album. ‘Ivy’ genuinely brought tears to my eyes. It is a stunning song that hits so many heartstrings with Frank’s dreamy vocals and the backing track that goes with them. It is by far my favourite song on the album because of that. ‘Pink+White’ is a massive commercial success and you can see why. It is a great song to listen to and really get invested in. That is mainly because of the inclusion of Pharrell Williams again to help produce the song, adding to his incredible track record with making records better. Other tracks such as ‘Solo’, ‘Nights’ and ‘White Ferrari’ are songs that, once again, had commercial success, but actually were great songs. So many times in recent years do songs gain popularity without being a ‘good song’. The songs that gained traction on this album are genuinely great songs. This project is genuinely a great album. I could listen to the melodies woven around Frank’s voice all day, and when he is singing with the soul we all know he has, it makes it all the more perfect.
‘Blonde’ is without a doubt, the best project in Frank Ocean’s discography, and I will stand by that fact. The emotions you feel listening to this needs to be experienced by everyone.
In conclusion… Listen to Frank Ocean… You will not be disappointed.
MusicMuted 