On Friday, for the first time in four years, there was a new Frank Ocean album. Two days later, there was another one. Blond, the official follow-up to Ocean’s magnificent, bar-raising opus ChannelOrange, is the album listeners have been anxiously anticipating after many delays and rumored release dates, and it’s ready to be unpacked. Led by the track “Nikes,” which arrived only hours before the album with a Tyrone Lebon-directed video, its expectations were somewhat diffused by the earlier release of the visual album and companion piece Endless. But the pressure was still on, brought on in part by the stellar debut but also by the colossal weight of hype; as Ocean noted in a Tumblr post after the release: “thank you all. Especially those of you who never let me forget I had to finish. Which is basically every one of ya’ll.”
A 17-track offering, Blond builds on Ocean’s reputation as a songwriter and auteur of the highest order, enlisting assistance from creatives across the musical spectrum. It's almost all material we've never heard, with a few reworked elements from some songs debuted in Munich a few years back thrown into the mix. There are shades of Orange in its diverse sonic palette, but it is unique with its own feel and flow. Now that you can finally dive in, here are some things to consider as you listen to Blond.
Meet the Crack Team of Engineers That Mixed Blond
Blond sounds lush and rich, especially heard next to the comparatively lo-fi Endless. A host of experienced engineers from different backgrounds had a hand it making the album what it is. Guests James Blake and Jonny Greenwood appear to have brought engineers from recent projects with them—Sam Petts-Davies and Matt Mysko, who worked on A Moon Shaped Pool and The Colour in Anything, respectively. The legendary Bob Ludwig, who has worked on records for Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, and Nirvana, among many others, had a role on Blond. Sean Oakley and Jason Lader, who were also credited on The Colour in Anything as recording engineers, are here, too. Joe Visciano, who has credits on David Bowie’s Blackstar and Jamie xx’s In Colour (both of whom are also credited on Blond), and who has mixed and assisted on records for Adele, Arcade Fire, and Shamir, is also listed as a contributor for this album. Then there’s producer extraordinaire Mike Dean (who mastered Endless) and Grammy winner Tom Elmhirst, who mixed Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, Adele’s 19 and 25, and Beck’s Morning Phase. Not to be forgotten is Channel Orange alum Jeff Ellis.
Guest List: Late Icons, A-listers, and … Japanese Rappers?
The Blond credits were presented as a list in the Boys Don’t Cry magazine, not in the traditional liner notes format like on the visual album, Endless, but poring over them still provides some context for this record. The list, which doesn't distinguish between sample sources and musical collaborators, also brings more questions about the record's composition. Listen closely and you may hear the flourishes of returning collaborators Malay and Om’mas Keith. But in addition to credits from some lost legends like the Beatles, Bowie, and Elliott Smith, seasoned musical sages (Brian Eno, Jonny Greenwood, and Rick Rubin), some more contemporary A-listers (Beyoncé, Pharrell, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar), and some artists of the “dream collaboration” variety (Arca, James Blake, Jazmine Sullivan, and Rostam Batmanglij), there are a handful of unusual guests and some straight-up unknowns.
The most surprising name in the credits might be Yung Lean, the sing-songy Swedish rapper/one-time web phenom, and it’s hard to tell what exactly his input was (vocals on “Self Control,” perhaps). Gospel singer Kim Burrell, who worked alongside Kirk Franklin in the Trinity Temple Gospel Mass Choir and later founded the Love and Liberty Fellowship Church, is a vocalist on “Godspeed.” Two Japanese rappers, KOHH and Loota, are credited as guests on the CD version of “Nikes.” They are best known in the West for their features on Korean rapper Keith Ape’s viral hit “It G Ma.” Producer Benjamin Wright also joins the fray. In his four-decade long career he’s done everything from arranging synths for the Temptations in the ’80s to arranging strings on Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Rock with You” to conducting on Justin Timberlake’s Justified and OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Perhaps he had something to do with the gorgeous, streaking violins on “Pink + White.”
Nigerian-American producer Michael Uzowuru, who is credited on both albums (he co-produced the Endless standout “Rushes to”), has been Odd Future-adjacent since 2010. He’s produced tracks for Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, Jet Age of Tomorrow, and Vince Staples, so it's no shock to see him here. Then there’s SebastiAn, the French electronic musician who has kept fans waiting for an album even longer than Ocean has (Total came out in 2011), the teller on “Facebook Story,” posing the same questions about connectivity that the Endless song “Device Control” does.
There Are Guitars Galore
Between Jonny Greenwood, Amber Coffman, Rostam Batmanglij, the mysteriously-billed Space Man (who played on three Endless tracks, including “Rushes”—Pitchfork has confirmed that this is not J. Spaceman of Spiritualized and Spacemen 3), Andre 3000 (who appeared on Channel Orange), Mike Dean (a noted guitarist and bassist), Buddy Ross (who played bass on “Florida” from Endless), Malay, and Frank himself, you’d figure there would be a heavy dose of guitar on this release. But the scope of the instrument’s involvement is even grander than expected. Guitar dominates the record. The dream poppy sparkle on “Ivy;” the more subdued, reverb-tinged flutter on “Skyline To;” the plucky, acoustic flicks on “Self Control;” the punkish amp overload that jumpstarts “Pretty Sweet” before bottoming out into something more sweeping with piano fills; the mashing jingle at the open of “Nights” and the electric fret walk at its close. Blond moves and swells in these moments, which help anchor Ocean’s voice and his writing.
“I Got Two Versions. I Got Twooo Versions”
Speculation about a Channel Orange follow-up first took off with a Tumblr post, which seemed to imply that there would be an album and a magazine, both called Boys Don’t Cry, and that both would be released that July. Now, it seems that caption could mean several things. Could the two versions be the two different albums: Endless and Blond? Could the two versions be two different version of Blond itself? The CD released at the pop-up shop and the version in Apple Music have different tracklists. (Web sleuths suggest the songs on the disc feature the same recordings from the digital version.) The image on the post depicts two different magazines, which could mean there’s another out there. (It could also just mean Ocean decided to go with a different variant of that cover since one had “2015” on it, though the issue of Boys Don’t Cry released for free at the pop-up shops had three alternate covers.) There’s also the very real possibility that the various projects and release plans changed along the way and came together with a certain amount of improvisation, which leaves a lot of loose ends (like the fact that Apple Music calls the album Blonde instead of Blond).
Watching the Throne?
Frank's features on Jay Z and Kanye West’s big-budget swag rap pageant Watch the Throne helped introduce him to the world, but a couple of things about Blond run counter to the interests of the rap moguls. Through his Adidas partnership and Yeezy collection, Kanye has waged a personal fashion holy war against Nike and its subsidiary brand Jordans, taking shots on record and in tweets. Ocean rolled his album out with a song called “Nikes.” Jay Z and his polished but supremely under-gunned streaming service Tidal are in the throes of a battle for market share with giants Spotify and Apple Music. Tidal largely relies on exclusive streaming rights to high profile releases to woo and maintain its subscribers (See: Beyonce’s Lemonade and Rihanna’s ANTI), and nabbing the Frank Ocean album would’ve been a notch in his belt. Considering the close relationship between the two, it seemed all but a foregone conclusion at one point (when Tidal first launched, many speculated that the Channel Orange follow-up might be one of the first Tidal exclusives). But Ocean granted exclusive streaming rights with top competitor Apple instead. At the very least, these are funny coincidences.
Welcome to Frank’s Multimedia Experience
Fans have been wondering what Frank Ocean has been up to in the four years since Channel Orange, and the answer seems to be: creating a fully-immersive, multimedia experience. First there was the live stream, which initially seemed like a tease (and later a troll), but turned out to be a cryptic lesson on respecting creative space. Then the visual album followed, Endless, an extension of the live stream (visually speaking) that dubbed the odds and ends from the Blond sessions over literal work in progress (several songs debuted on the live stream in the hours leading up to the official release, as Ocean built his staircase). After that, we got the long-teased magazine, Boys Don’t Cry, which he released for free at pop-up shops, and which includes interviews with Katonya Breaux (his mother) and Lil B, a rap from Kanye West about McDonald’s, photos from Wolfgang Tillmans, and an emotional poem Frank wrote called “Boyfriend.”
Now, there’s Blond, the full-bodied, finely-tuned follow-up we’ve been waiting for, a storyboard to consume and unpack. The full package explores Ocean’s creative range. It brings to mind a tweet of his from long ago, back when he was still on Twitter, not long after he’d released Channel Orange and before he’d withdrawn from the public eye: “If you’re a writer you can write anything..prose, songs, raps, novels, plays, films, laws..take the governor off your gift. Note to self.” It seems he’s heeded that advice and was willing to share. We just had to be patient.