Review #148: channel ORANGE, Frank Ocean
#148: channel ORANGE, Frank Ocean
In a rare moment of insight, the RS blurb mentions that this album came during a time when being openly gay as a rap artist wasn’t quite so common. I don’t pretend to be an LGBT history expert but I do know that ten years ago is a lot longer than we tend to think it is. Frank Ocean walked so Lil Nas X could run.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“Thinkin Bout You” — It’s a shame this song got memed so hard because now the only lyric I can hear is A potato flew around my room…
“Fertilizer” — What a cheery melody! This album is kind of upbeat, which is weird, considering his next album is the biggest bummer in the world.
“Sweet Life” — The best song wasn’t the single/But you couldn’t turn your radio down.
“Pilot Jones” — His falsetto is so impressive.
“Crack Rock” — I was listening to this album with my roommate, and she thought he was saying “Quack quack” and not “Crack rock.” Now that’s all I can hear.
“Pyramids” — The radio edit of this song cuts out the first bit, and I like the first bit! Also, I didn’t realize this was actually about Cleopatra.
“White” — John Mayer?? What are you doing here?
“Bad Religion” — This is the one that his voice is the most soul-shattering on. WOW, also his voice when he performs on Jimmy Fallon! I halfway didn’t believe he actually had such an amazing voice live. Goosebumps on goosebumps.
“Pink Matter” — With Andre 3000! Yet again! I know that everything he touches turns to gold, but somebody needs to start giving Big Boi some work instead.
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“Super Rich Kids” — This one has Earl Sweatshirt on it, which is fun! But it kind of drones for me.
IS RS FULL OF IT?
The closer we get to the present, the more we have to ask ourselves: Can we really tell if this is worthy of being considered one of the best albums of all time? Maybe that’s the real reason so many of these albums are from the Sixties and Seventies.
But I think that RS is right, and this album sounds like the future. Am I biased because I’ve already talked about how much I love Frank Ocean? Deal with it.
