A meditation on sex, pregnancy and childhood dreams that begs for repeated listens in order to crack its elliptical code.

Sierra Leone – The percussion stays buried as Ocean sounds like he’s debating with his own spoken-word statements. On its own, it’s a lost pop doodle, but in context, the track makes weird sense.Ĥ. Fertilizer – An AM radio jingle about bullshit, “Fertilizer” is a bridge between Tracks 2 and 4 that underlines the importance of listening to “Orange” in order. Still, the woozy heaven of “Thinkin Bout You’s” backing track and Ocean’s clawing falsetto still ring true, and bestow “Channel Orange” with a unique backbone.ģ. It’s as if Frank is giving his listeners 46 seconds to strap in.Ī bold choice to lead off his major label debut with a song that’s floated around the Internet for a year. Start – Patches of silence and flickers of noise get “Channel Orange” underway. Which songs on “Channel Orange” are the best of the bunch? Check out this track-by-track review of the R&B singer’s major label debut.ġ. Either way, it’s one of the best albums of the year, and Ocean, hopefully, will keep making more like it, without a hint of reservation. “Channel Orange” may make Frank Ocean a household name, or it might not. Yet Ocean’s irrepressible spirit carries all 55 minutes of this opus, shining light on subjects that are not discussed often enough and spinning new webs of ideas around familiar R&B tropes. “Channel Orange” does not contain any bad songs, although there are times when Ocean’s themes could be a bit tighter. The production never smothers the singer’s sumptuous vocals, which spill over into pockets of air that the listener didn’t know could be filled. But no matter what Ocean’s mood is on the album, the songs sound fantastic.

Guardian channel orange review