On my flight back to Vancouver, I was listening to music, as usual, not really caring about what the songs were, but just mindlessly passing time. That’s when it hit me. I take a look at my “liked songs” by Frank Ocean, an artist who hasn’t published an album since 2016, and see that half of my liked songs is from this album called “Blonde”.
I was like, okay, pause, is it that good to the point where I’ve liked 12/18 songs from that album? I re-assess, and listen to each song, hoping to find an excuse to say that this album is trash — because in my mind — this artist was too “fruity”. Well, my thoughts didn't get to me, and with further listening, I’ve come to the conclusion that this album is a work of art! Here’s why.
What is “Blonde”?
Blonde was released on August 20, 2016, which has almost been 6 years. Nonetheless, its cultural and musical impact still bleeds into today’s pop culture. The album is truly a work of art due to the amount of artists who collaborated on Blonde (69 in total). Kanye West co-writed the lyrics for “White Ferrari”, Kendrick Lamar performed his adlibs on “Skyline To”, Beyoncé contributed her vocals to be put on “Pink + White”, and Yung Lean can be faintly heard on “Godspeed”. This album inspired so many more artists such as Joji and Daniel Ceasar, who are both very famous today.
“Blonde”, and its 17 songs, was a reflection of Frank’s life as it shows us his thoughts during a 4 year period since his last album release (channel ORANGE). And although the themes that are presented in these songs are quite mature, “Blonde” still manages to touch the hearts of the younger audience.
What Frank does phenomenally in all his music is his ability to combine the “Hip-Hop” genre that we all know and love with hints of “R&B” (Rhythm in Blues), creating his own unique genre of Hip-Hop that differentiates from the masculine norm of rap that has dominated over the music industry throughout the last decade.
The theme of “Duality”
When played from start to finish the album is exactly 1 hour long, with “Nights” being at the 30 minute mark. Frank creates two parts of Blonde: Blond (Femininity) and Blond (Masculinity), which creates themes that both genders can relate to.
Throughout the 17 masterpieces in “Blonde”, duality can be seen by how listeners can interpret two people interacting lyrically. Frank Ocean masters this art perfectly. The time management between how the two people speak brings symmetry in the music. The duality and tension is always fought where one always gains or loses. Nothing can ever happen at the same time where both gain or both lose. This idea seems quite pessimistic but at the same time, it reveals truth in relationships that society faces today.
Without further ado, these are my 3 favourite songs and why.
“Nikes”
“Nikes” is the first song of the album and it’s one of his most symbolic and relatable pieces as it geers towards the understanding of human relationships, convience and morals. This song truly plays with our hearts, talking about Treyvon Martin, a 17yr old who was killed in 2012 (unarmed), and also ASAP Yams, an artist who died due to a drug abuse. I think the most sentimental and painful lyric is “I’m not him, but I’ll mean something to you”, which refers to the dilema of having the convenience of everything but truly not savouring how it is.
Its repetition of “I’ll mean somethin’ too” during the last lines of the song show that things are still incomplete while also hinting at the speaker’s desperation. I think that Frank’s clever idea of making the speaker not satisfied by the end of the song is what makes listeners so on edge. This is why after the last lyric of the song, the same chorus-like melody plays as if the song has not ended yet, hoping to reach a conclusion in the following songs.
“Ivy”
“Ivy” will forever hold a spot in my favourite Frank Ocean songs as it introduces a unique approach to looking into our past times. Frank attempts to show us that we don’t have to look into the past with bitterness, disappointment, and cringe, metaphorically saying that sometimes we are blindsighted by unrequited love, but there are countless other meanings too. What’s so amazing is that this song was created before the pandemic but still manages to touch upon so many themes we “Gen-Z’ and millenials experience post-pandmic. For example, the lines “We’ll never be those kids again” is rather simplistic yet is still enough to elicit an emotional response: the harsh reality that time will forever move on and never being the same.
The reason this song sounds so sad yet has such a fruitful melody is the juxtaposition between its lyrics and its youthful chords and tempo followed by Frank’s “gently pitched vocal”, increasing its uniqueness and popularity. This symbolizes how we often try to cover up our past, replacing it with only happy memories and really forgetting about the embarrassing and sad ones.
“Ivy” presents the theme that we really do cringe at our past but fail to realize that the past is a home for our mistakes and more immature selves. It can be interpreted that Frank is talking to his past self by saying ,“I could hate you now / It’s quite alright to hate me now”. Frank admits to the mistakes and man he was in the past, but he shows us that he is a better man than he once was, surrendering his ego and saying that “it’s alright” to hate the flaws of me, because I hate me too.
“White Ferrari”
Being the 14th song on the album, Frank continues with the sorrowful theme with “White Ferrari”. In my opinion, the highlight of this song is the intense vocals of Frank and how he explains self care. He emphasizes the importance to cherish the ones around you and to always be grateful with the first lyric being “Bad luck to talk on these rides”. Frank explains to not dismiss the beautiful memories one makes with other people referring to “these rides” as memories and “bad luck” as not negatively talking down among or with others while together.
Conclusion
If you have made it this far then I hope you get a further understanding of how think these songs mean. This is the first time I have gotten into in analyzing or interpreting any music, so it might not as in depth or thorough as you imagined.
