The Daily Spin, September 22
Frank Ocean | Blonde
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Blonde (2016)
Artist: Frank Ocean
Link:
What I love so much about Blonde is that, despite its appearance as what could very easily be mistaken for background music on the surface, it remains one of the most cutting and gorgeous albums of its era, a prominent standout in an increasingly crowded field.
One of the things that has become deeply clear in the years since Blonde is that no one can quite do this brand of soulful RnB quite like Frank - sure, guys like SiR can hit those dulcet tones with their vocals, and there’s no shortage of imitators with his beats, but it’s the ability to combine the two that sets him so distinctly apart.
Though I’m not always the biggest fan of his vocals, and that same credit I give for avoiding the feeling of background music definitely doesn’t always clear, there’s an undeniable sort of appeal to this music - melancholy to its core, beautifully emotive, yet also deeply groovy and the sort of beat that can just as easily float through the open windows of a car on a hot summer night as it can the blocking headphones of someone needing a moment of solace within emotional tumult - and it’s that that’s Blonde’s greatest strength to me, that versatility.
Rating: 9.0/10
Best Tracks: Godspeed; White Ferrari
Worst Tracks: Pink + White