At the beginning of “Nikes,” the opening track on singer Frank Ocean’s long anticipated second album “Blonde,” you hear the thump of an isolated, moody beat, laying the background for the world’s first glimpse of Ocean in over four years.
After a release process as tumultuous as this album’s, nobody really knew what to expect. The result ended up being otherworldly.
The first vocals are pitch-shifted interpretations of Ocean’s inner consciousness. This gives the impression he is isolated from the world’s reality, but he also loves the small intricacies which make it up. The idea that Frank Ocean is both human and alien presents itself multiple times throughout the album via the use of pitch adaptation, glorious interludes and well-placed guest spots.
On “Solo (Reprise),” Andre 3000 takes the stage and delivers a verse which sounds like it was rapped on the planet Jupiter, not Earth. Another modern alien in hip-hop/R&B employed by Ocean is Beyoncé, though she only delivers a few hums on the song “Pink + White.”
Then there is Kendrick Lamar, who contributes only a few ad-libbed bars to the song “Skyline To.” These nuances prove the originality of Ocean’s vision, and just how important each little facet of the album is.
That said, there are still monumental pieces here which bring the lush instrumentation and the poetic musings of “Channel Orange” to a whole new level. One of these is “Seigfried,” an emotional break-up song complemented by the most gorgeous strings on an Ocean track since “Bad Religion.”
Ocean’s disconnect from the surrounding world is profoundly influenced by his own dealings with heartbreak. This is contrasted by a clear shift in Ocean’s inner being, which has surely undergone a transformation in the last few years.
On one of the standout tracks, “Nights,” Ocean sings, “Want to see Nirvana / but don’t want to die yeah.” There are also multiple references on the album to drugs like marijuana, shrooms and even the South American spirit medicine ayahuasca. It is very much evident that Ocean’s silence these last few years may have included a drug-addled inner quest for his enlightenment as an artist and human.
Ocean uses this as a gateway to comment on the materialism of the Millennial Generation, especially on “Nikes” and the short skits “Be Yourself” and “Facebook Story.”
As disconnected from the outside world as Ocean is, he can still bring it all together and realize something whole. He exemplifies this on album closer “Futura Free.” Here Ocean envisions a future in which dollars do not guide behavior, but virtues do. He ruminates humbly on multiple relationships in this track, ending it all with an array of sonic chaos which seems to represent all of the world’s stressors and all of its delights at the same time.
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