Frank Ocean Debuts Eclectic New Album ‘Blonde’ Alongside ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ Magazine

Matt Matasci

As of Saturday, the wait for a new, proper Frank Ocean album has officially ended. This weekend, the enigmatic R&B singer released “Blonde,” his follow-up to 2012’s revelatory “Channel Orange.” At 2 a.m. Saturday morning, prior to the album’s release, it’s first single, “Nikes,” went live on Ocean’s website along with a visually-arresting Tyrone Lebon-directed music video. The video’s release initially led to confusion. Onlookers were unsure if the “Endless” visual album, previously made available on Friday, was in fact the new LP with another version in tow and if “Nikes” was an addition to that or if there was an entirely new album on the way as promised. Unlike previous instances where Ocean’s fans got their hopes up, this time the payoff came with “Blonde” being released exclusively on Apple Music Saturday afternoon.

In conjunction with the album’s release, pop-up shops in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and London dispensed a limited-edition magazine titled “Boys Don’t Cry” (the working title of “Blonde”). This explosion of content from Ocean is a welcome relief for die-hard followers of the “Thinkin Bout You” singer, many of whom wondered when they would get to hear his new music. Lucky fans who arrived early enough to these four pop-up shops had an opportunity to grab one of three versions of the magazine – though it appears the only difference between the three is the cover art. The magazine features interviews with Ocean’s mother, Kanye West, Lil B plus includes poetry, photography, a screenplay and other literary work from the singer and his peers. Also making the zine of particular interest is that it included a CD of “Blonde,” which is reportedly different than the one currently available on Apple Music. The CD version is much shorter, not including several of the tracks that are on the Apple Music version, yet features songs, “Mitsubishi Sony” and “Easy,” both of which are not available on the streaming version. And while the Apple Music album cover art shows an alternative spelling of the title (“Blond”), in the “Boys Don’t Cry” magazine, on the included alternate CD – it is clearly spelled as “Blonde.”

As we fully enter the digital age of album releases, the credits for the album were presented in an entirely new manner. The aforementioned “Boys Don’t Cry” magazine featured a list of names, a veritable who’s-who of the music industry, from David Bowie, Jamie xx, The Beatles, Brian Eno to Kendrick Lamar. The list lumps all the credits together without distinguishing what was sampled, who was a collaborator, and which artists simply provided an inspiration for the album’s songs. All of these names and the ambiguity from the song files themselves leave the listener with the task of identifying where the samples and collaborations occur throughout “Blondes'” tracks.

The album follows the electronic template set by Ocean’s visual release “Endless” and veers away from the keyboard-inflected sounds of the biggest hits from his 2012 debut. “Nikes” opens with a pair of pitch-shifted vocals set atop a sparse beat, with tributes paid to A$AP Yams, Pimp C and Trayvon Martin: “Pour up for A$AP / RIP Pimp C / RIP Trayvon, that nigga look just like me.” It takes three minutes, nearly the entire length of the track, for Ocean’s mostly unaffected vocals to enter the mix in gentle fashion, with a light acoustic guitar figure and the singer hitting falsetto notes. “We’ll let you guys prophesy / We gonna see the future first / Living so the last night feels like a past life,” the “Super Rich Kids” singer croons before he raps the remainder of verse two, concluding “Nikes” with the same soft falsetto, “I may be younger / But I’ll look after you / We’re not in love / But I’ll make love to you / When you’re not here / I’ll save some for you / I’m not him / But I’ll mean something to you.”

While the keyboard plays an integral role in the instrumental mix of “Blonde,” it is surpassed by a hefty amount of guitar playing. With Greenwood, Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend, Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors and many more contributing to the record, nearly every song is uniquely influenced by the instrument. “Ivy” features only Ocean’s voice atop a slightly-distorted and reverberating finger-picked electric guitar, the jazzier inflections of “Self-Control,” while “Pink + White” stands as the closest the singer has ever come to writing an R&B infused rock and roll song. “Pretty Sweet” uses the guitar to create a Kanye West-style wave of aggression which eventually subsides to the echoing chant of the verse.

If there’s one thing that can be said about “Blonde,” it is that it is impeccably produced. That should come as no surprise considering the crack team Ocean was able to assemble for the 17-song sophomore album. While executively produced by Ocean, contributing producers include Malay (“Channel Orange”), Rick Rubin, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West, engineer Sam Petts-Davies who worked with “Endless” contributor Jonny Greenwood on Radiohead’s recent “A Moon Shaped Pool” and James Blake’s “The Colour in Anything” engineer Matt Mysko. Other big names such as Bob Ludwig, Sean Oakley and Jason Lader had roles in the album’s recording and some of music’s most recognizable names contributed vocals. André 3000’s verses brought much needed energy to the album on “Solo,” while other guest vocals are subtly placed. From Yung Lean on “Self-Control” and Beyoncé harmonizing with Ocean on “Pink + White” to Kendrick Lamar on “Skyline To” and James Blake on “White Ferrari.” Much like “Channel Orange,” Ocean’s second album is an impressively diverse affair, ranging from stripped back old-school R&B to present-day hip-hop, all with the influence of classic and modern rock ‘n roll.

It could be argued that Frank Ocean took some of the self-inflicted pressure off of “Blonde” when he released “Endless” on Friday. Had Ocean simply released a premature sophomore album in 2014 without any fanfare, most fans would be disappointed but understanding. But with all the baiting-and-switching from the singer, he built a level of anticipation that was seemingly impossible to meet. While it is still too early to tell for sure, it appears that with the release of “Blonde,” Ocean has managed to meet those lofty expectations.

“Blonde” is available exclusively on Apple Music Aug. 20.