Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
This will be our first album review since early January, and we are going to try something a little different. A few of our viewers have requested that we change our format for album reviews. Our album reviews are our best feature in the eyes of many readers. The complaint we were getting was that when we review longer albums, the reviews become so long, it becomes boring. In contrast, more people read our album reviews than any other type of article. We thought that just for today, we would try a new format for reviewing this album. Please let us know which format you prefer!
Channel Orange is the debut album from American singer/songwriter, Frank Ocean. Frank has been nominated for a few Grammys this year, including Best New Artist, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year. This is a great achievement for an artist who has only been on the scene since 2011. He is my favorite to win the Best New Artist category, but you'll have to wait until Friday for the rest of the list!
This album has a distinctive style that contains influences from hip-hop, R&B, soul, and psychedelic music. In my opinion, Frank Ocean is one of the most talented modern artists. His songwriting abilities are reminiscent of some of the best in history, especially in the way he can tell a story. His music is as relative to modern youth as Buddy Holly was in the 1950s! This creates an overwhelming sensation of desire. When I first heard this album in July, 2012, I was genuinely astonished by the quality of this record. It was definitely not the experience I was planning on having. Listening to this album put me in a trance that I just didn't want to depart from.
This is a beautiful album that requires patience and attention to completely understand. This is the kind of album that you have to listen to more than once. The lead single off of the album, "Thinking Bout You", is one of the best on the album. It evokes feelings of regret and sorrow, somehow in a subtle manner. It shows off Ocean's incredible falsetto ability, as well as his incredible songwriting abilities. The song peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100, which came as a surprise to me only because of the unconventional genre of the song.
I think this was one of the best albums of 2012 and it has the chance to win Album of the Year on Sunday. I actually told my father that I thought Frank Ocean would win Best New Artist way back in 2011 when he released the mix tape, Nostalgia, Ultra. He is one of my favorite artists of the year and I am rooting for him this Grammy season!
Top 5 Songs From Channel Orange
1. Thinking Bout You (9/10)
2. Pyramids (10/10)
3. Super Rich Kids (8/10)
4. Lost (8/10)
5. Sweet Life (7/10)
Listen to Channel Orange on Spotify:
Buy Channel Orange on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/channel-orange/id541953504
Hopefully you all enjoyed our experimental format for album reviews. Let us know if you want to see more of these kinds of reviews, or more track-by-track reviews!
Stay tuned for more Grammy coverage all week!!
i wish there was more about the album itself. still interesting though
ReplyDeleteStrange video but like the song a lot! I do prefer the old format of reviewing the whole album...but this was good too.
ReplyDelete