Frank Ocean ~ Blonde

 

“I'd rather live outside, I'd rather chip my pride than lose my mind.” To properly contextualize what Blonde is about, I want to start out with how it was released. In 2016 Frank Ocean was a popular RnB artist, having previously worked with the likes of Justin Bieber, Tyler, The Creator and André 3000 of Outcast. While not commercially being a superstar, he had a big fan base and a lot of critical acclaim. He only had one problem though, his label. While one could argue it is just greedy for such a successful artist, wanting to get rid of your label after you have made it big, plenty other artists like Kendrick, Prince or Taylor have also made two arguments: The first one is about the ownership over your work. When someone else owns the rights for your work, without their approval, you have limited authority over the context it is presented in. Movies, advertisements, events.  The person owning the copyright is getting the final context, where your music is played. The other argument is one for emancipation. Deadlines, quality control and censorship due to shared responsibilities are amongst the struggles a signed artist faces that an independent one does not.

Anyways. Frank Ocean was craving independence but he owed his label one more album. For some this may not be a lot, but Frank rarely releases albums. In 2016, however, Frank announced his new album, but what he released on the 19th of August was not Blonde, it was a visual album called “Endless”. Blonde was released independently one day later. It is to this date his most successful album and gave him the success to buy back all the rights to his music. A fight for independence. A fight for self-determination.

Why was that important? Because Blonde, not only as a product, but also as an artwork is about self-determination. Separated in two equal parts, by one beat switch in the song “Nights”. It represents Frank looking first back at his past then at his present, reflecting on relationships and belonging. Often both disempowered and powerful at the same time. Having to draw boundaries and have drawn boundaries around himself. Losing control  over his circumstances while learning to take control over his feelings. “I'd rather live outside, I'd rather chip my pride than lose my mind.” The story of the album and the story of its release are two sides of the same coin. 

And that is only scratching the surface. Musically it was surprisingly low-key for a mainstream album of the 2010s. Now drums, slow synthesizers and every word presented with care. “Keep a place for me, I’ll sleep between you, it's nothing”. The way only a few words paint panoramas of emotions, it is so evocative. There are places where you will find complete line for line dissections of this album. I usually do not tend to do this anyways, however, this is to say that there are barely things not said about this album. Probably the future of your favourite artist's favourite artwork. While it definitely was no radio album, in the generation of streaming, this album is so defining to a generation as it is defined by the streaming generation. Anyways if you are looking for this type of comprehensive analysis, I would recommend the Dissect podcast, you can’t really out analyse the work that they are doing, when they are taking a whole season to dissect an album track by track.

So where even is the worth in me writing about an album that I think everything may have been said already. I just reminded myself that this is my favourite album of all time and there should always be value in knowing what you love, but also Blonde is an album more than any other defined by what you project into it, I think. Listening to it, I can’t help but feel like Frank Ocean represents so much more than only his own life. “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.” It is like he found words to describe universal things like nostalgia, grief  and heartbreak, in a way that wasn’t done before. In a way that feels uniquely fitting to the generation of Tinder and Tumbler.

It is hard to describe its meaning, without just showing it. That is why I just quote this album all over this review. “Every night fucks every day up, every day patches the night up.” To me it is less what it does and more how it feels, what makes Blonde that great. If I need an hour to sit back and reflect on where I currently stand in life, I just put on this album and even though me and Frank Ocean have lived vastly different lives, it is that universal pursuit of emancipation that unites us. There always are different verses, different ideas, different feelings that stick out to me, when I put on blonde and somehow they always help me to soothe this longing that is buried somewhere inside of me.

Longing for what? Emancipation, Nostalgia, Intimacy, Healing, Connection, Freedom, Belonging, Absolution, Whatever,...

There always is a longing.

There always is a longing and there always is Frank Ocean longing with me.

 

Short: Blonde is my favourite album.