The wait is finally over.
On August 20, 2016, after four excruciating years of anticipation, Frank Ocean released his second studio album, “Blonde.”
Accompanied by the release of a 45 minute visual album, “Endless,” and the Issue 001 of Ocean’s new magazine, “Boy’s Don’t Cry,” his sophomore release is nothing short of creative and fascinating.
During the first week after it’s release, “Blonde” produced over 64.5 million streams and is currently marked as the third largest debut album of 2016.
What is most groundbreaking about this release is the fact that Ocean actually bypassed a traditional distributing company and released the album to iTunes and Apple Music himself.
An album of this amount of commercial success after only one week from an artist that has been virtually invisible for years is one of a kind.
Upon purchasing “Blonde” on iTunes (the only place the album is currently available), iTunes reviews scatter across the screen and perfectly describe the dedication and increasing impatience experienced by Ocean’s fans within the last four years.
User Hiago states: “In four years, I moved to a different country, learned two new languages, fell in love, and almost died, but the entire time, I was thinking ‘when is Frank going to drop the album?’ Well, here it is, and it’s perfect.”
Another user, Blossombryyy states: “This album cleared my skin, gave me a 6.5 GPA, made me lose weight, became a super model, fly to space and interact with aliens.”
A self-proclaimed introvert, Ocean creates an entire journey through this album that causes listeners to want to travel the world, fall in love and cry alone in the middle of the night.
With poetic lyrics (“It’s hell on Earth and the city’s on fire/Inhale, inhale there’s heaven”) and high production value, the songs on this record connect to create a seamless story and characters. Featured on the album are Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000 and several additional high profile artists.
An experimental artistic venture, “Blonde” embodies what fans love most about Ocean—his intimacy, his story telling, his melancholy nature and his smooth wordplay.
Ocean’s album really proves “Blonde” does it best.