FRANK OCEAN, CHANNEL ORANGE REVIEW
I had been hearing a lot of time about Frank Ocean but never really got into his music. During the quarantine, I had the opportunity to discover and explore his two studio albums, Channel Orange and Blonde.
Channel Orange is a brilliant debut album. The first track ont the album, Start, contains ordinary life's sounds (laughs and chat notifications sounds) but then, a TV is turned on (as in the End track, it is turned off) ,as the beggining of something and 90s videogames sounds appear, like Frank's childhood memories.
The second track, Thinkin Bout You, turns into a love and vulnerable ballad (most in the falsetto parts) , with Ocean talking (probably) about his first love. The falsetto parts are tender,show the inocence of 'thinkin 'bout forever', as a child who confess a deeply believe.There is hope, a hope for reciprocity. In the non-falsetto parts ('No, I don't like you, I just thought you were cool enough to kick it'), Frank's tone is harder.
The hope of that love to become eternal, the thought of an ever-lasting love, having that in mind and then , not been realised, drives his voice into vulnerability and pain.
As Ocean recognised in a BBC Sound of 2012 interview, with his music he pretends to tell stories, even in the no-words parts, he is telling you something, he is creating memories, narrating stories as a writer. This can be seen in the whole album , from the opening track, just sounds, they create the scene to Sierra Leone , where he tells the story of two teenagers parents and in Crack Rock, where he speaks about drug adiction.
Another topic on the album are the effects of money in people,as in 'Sweet Life', a soul-inspired track that gets the spirit of 'sweet life' , the joy of living in a remote place , far from other people's problems, living in a dream, 'Not Just Money' , an interlude that talks about the changes that can money make (' it's the difference between you being able to go to a prom and disappointing a girl') and 'Super Rich Kids', which talks about a not full life (pursuing real love), despite of living in a sumptuous atmosphere.
In Pyramids , an unique 10-minutes long piece, Ocean tells the listeners about two stories. One takes place in the Ancient Egypt, a king has been betrayed by his wife(called 'Cleopatra'), leaving him incomplete, undermined his throne, his glory as it is seen in the line 'How could you run off on me? How could you run off on us?', leading the king to a deep groan.
The second part, which starts in minute 4:50, accompanied with a saxo and a Contemporary R&B rhytm, speaks about the modern Cleopatra, a stripper who probably works in Luxor Las Vegas hotel . The narrator changes throughout the second piece, sometimes is the stripper's pimp (' Hit the strip and my bills paid') and others it is the girl's (modern Cleopatra)ex-lover .
The song contains house rhytms and Ocean's vocals are often as a narrator, but also truly, warm , when he is singing in first person ('Your love ain't free'). The piece closes up with a raw John Mayer's guitar solo.
Another shimmering piece of the album is Lost, another story also talking about drug dealing. The protagonist is a girl who works as a mule .The song mentions different places in the world, no matter , the girl feels uncomfortable; she is probably confused, lost. The narrator seems to be trying to balance his love for her and the drug-dealing issue. The drums are sticky and, with the guitar, drives the R&B topic to an indie-rock composition.
In Bad religion, a church-imbuid track, where Frank seems to confess about an unrequitted love and apparently, trying to find help in religion . The vocals are genuine, truly sincere.
Finally, in Forrest Gump , Frank takes the love story between Forrest and Jenny and reinterprets it in Jenny's perspective. According to Genius, Ocean could be also talking about his first love inspiring on the film. He would be taking fiction to reality, connecting his own love story with the movie's one.
In conclusion, Channel Orange is a great,brilliant record.Common topics of modern R&B or hip-hop,are melted with some house, Soul, pop melodies and funky touches (Monks) .
Frank intention to narrate stories is often broken by his vulnerable and soulful vocals. This 'writer' intention drives him to mark the beginning and the end of the record (the DVD or video tape introduced on a TV).
Ocean's album really started and drew the limits of modern R&B.
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So good! I love this blog
ReplyDeleteI love Frank Ocean. Great!
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