Def Jam
This review has been re-written three times.
The first iteration described the chaotic and often bigoted politics leading up to the release of Channel Orange courtesy of a poetic blog that Frank Ocean posted describing his first love with another man; that took up 150 words too much leaving little room to write about the breathtaking falsetto notes that he reaches in “Thinkin Bout You” and the brilliant seamless collaboration with Andre 3000 in “Pink Matter.”
The second review linked Ocean’s debut mixtape nostalgia ULTRA to his debut LP pointing to the incredible lyrical progression of hip-hop’s tragic iteration of Josh Ritter. But epically constructed songs such as “Novacane” and “Swim Good” were just too well-written to mention only in passing even in a critique of a different album. This brings us to this edit and perhaps the realization that Channel Orange is simply too conceptually massive of a record to write about in 300 words or less.
Many blogs and media outlets have attempted to sum it up but a few have acknowledged the difficulty — Rap Genius a website that aggregates interpretations of hip-hop lyrics published a meandering yet insightful 1300 word essay on a single song from the record. “Bad Religion” is certainly worthy of such analysis — in it Ocean narrates his wrestling with failed romance a condemning religion and the word everyone is talking about homosexuality — but the Earl Sweatshirt-assisted “Super Rich Kids” and the 10-minute multipart “Pyramids” are undoubtedly worthy of the same intricate treatment.
But perhaps we should be content with being unable to neatly sum up such an important composition. Frank Ocean certainly doesn’t seem to care about being ambiguous — he asks far more questions than he answers in Channel Orange preferring to dwell in haziness reluctance doubt and exploration. It’s a profound magnificent combination.
