I am beyond impressed by Frank Ocean’s debut studio album Channel ORANGE. I was immediately drawn to Ocean’s incredibly strong vocals with his hit singles “Novacane,” “Swim Good,” and of course his features on Jay and Ye’s Watch the Throne. Channel ORANGE, in my humble opinion, will go down as an album that will expand and further develop a new direction of R&B, due to its deep lyrical content, superb vocals, and uniquely diverse instrumentation. I encourage you all to go out and buy a copy if you haven’t already. I promise you will not regret. Below is a list of my favorite songs off the album.
Favorite Songs
1) Thinking about you: This is by far my favorite song off this album, primarily due to Ocean’s stellar vocal and emotionally impactful lyrics. I love this song from start to finish. The introduction of a group of violins playing with great vibrato perfectly lead into the tranquilizing and earthy beats sampled. Ocean’s falsetto in the chorus of this song is beyond perfection. Robin Thicke, Usher and Justin Timberlake’s falsetto attempts are amateurish compared to Ocean’s. Another great part about this song is its ability to capture a scenario we can all relate to. Ocean sings of someone who, when he thinks about, his “eyes don’t shed tears, but boy, they pour.” He ponders whether or not the person he is thinking about reciprocates thoughts of him. Frank basically admits to thinking about spending the rest of his life with this loved one, but again is clueless as to whether or not it is a mutual feeling. Nevertheless, this bittersweet story has to sound familiar to a plethora of us, which makes it that much more beautiful.
2) Sweet Life: This song has a great mixture of brass, string, and percussion instruments. It is a song with a combination of incredibly soothing and uplifting vocals sprinkled with lovely tropically inspired sounds. It paints a vividly intricate picture of an affluent character who lives in “ domesticated paradise,” where palm trees and pools decorate the hometown of Ladera Heights. The character Ocean sings about is basically living a “sweet life” since birth, being catered to with landscapers, housekeepers, and even has the luxury of owning a beach. Ocean paints such an incredibly enticing and surrealistic picture of a sweet life that seems unattainable, but highly desirable.
3) Super Rich Kids ft. Earl Sweatshirt : This is one of the songs that really caught my attention because of the repetitive piano chord played throughout the entirety of the song. For some reason the chords played sounds to me like a possible inspiration by the one and only Elton John. Again, both the vocals and story line of this track are impeccable. His theme seems to be the idea that money does not buy happiness, but rather causes nothing but “loose ends” “fake friends” and “white liars who cover up their problems with "white lines" (a cocaine reference of course). He further emphasizes in the bridge portion of the song that all he really desires in life is to search for a real love. The featuring of Earl Sweatshirt from the hip-hop collective Odd Future, further contributes to making this song quite catchy.
4) Pyramids:
I have to admit that I was very hesitant to listen to this song in its entirety, as it is a 10:00 song. However, after giving it a chance, it turned out to be one of my ultimate favorite songs on the album. The first half of the song is a more upbeat tempo, with of course an Egyptian sounding feel, intermixed with airy and spacey type sounds. The second half slows down in tempo and has more of a jazzy and soul infused sound. It’s all around a song with great depth as Ocean tells a tale of Cleopatra, the “jewel of Africa,” who looses her preciousness when she abandons her soul mate. This song is simply put, a masterpiece. Ocean’s incredible vocal range is perfectly showcased. His lyrical content is mind-blowing. The drastic changes in tempo and instrumentation, do not sound sloppy, but rather flows smoothly throughout the entirety of this lengthy song.
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