‘Genius’ community ranks ‘Blonde’ #3 album of 2010s, ‘Channel Orange’ #12
Frank Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde was voted the third-best album of the decade by contributors to Genius, the world’s largest collection of lyrics and musical knowledge. His 2012 studio album, Channel Orange, is not far behind at number twelve.
Genius editor @ibmac26 wrote the description for Blonde at #3 on the list:
What can be said about the generational talent Frank Ocean, that hasn’t been said already? The recluse artist tortured fans for four years after the release of channel ORANGE, teasing release dates before pump faking with Endless and finally releasing Blonde the day after. But the wait was worth it.
With this record, Ocean became a genre unto himself. He experimented with uncommon sonic effects, droning instrumentals, and unpredictable song patterns. Only a few songs on Blonde feature any kind of conventional song structure—they just float in the air before morphing into something else entirely. Ocean can sing like an angel, yet chooses to distort and contort his voice in every which way. He’s got a great ear for melody, but he often eschews hooks.
The opening track, “Nikes,” features Ocean crooning over a dreamy, luscious synthesizer-driven instrumental, and uses his lyrics to pit his love and desire for a significant other against their materialistic, surface level character. The album apexes with “Nights,” a track that features a dramatic instrumental switch at the exact half point of the record’s playtime. During the first half of the track, Ocean sings about past relationships and Hurricane Katrina ravaging his hometown, while on the second, darker half of the track shows Ocean’s vulnerability in trying to cope with these life events. Ocean had already established himself as a talented singer, songwriter, and producer, Blonde showcased his unfiltered ambition. The album didn’t yield many smash Billboard hits, yet it cemented him as a generational artist in touch with the millennial zeitgeist.
An anonymous contributor wrote about Channel Orange at #12:
After the buzz surrounding his debut mixtape, nostalgia ULTRA, Frank Ocean upgraded his songwriting and musicality for his timeless debut album channel ORANGE. A diverse melting pot of R&B, hip-hop, and rock, channel ORANGE shows Ocean firing on all cylinders, as he explores themes of essential longing on“Thinkin Bout You,” and “Forrest Gump”), the numbing effect of wealth on “Sweet Life” and “Super Rich Kids”), and sex on “Monks” and “Pink Matter”).
The album’s centerpiece is a combination of all those themes; the nearly 10-minute-long “Pyramids” ranges from corrosive space-funk on one half to modern-day club on the other half, all while providing an unflinching documentation on the ancient history and unfortunate degradation of black women. channel ORANGE is a soul-baring work, rendering heartfelt emotion and complex artistry, while representing Ocean as the person he truly is throughout.
After Blonde, the Genius community voted Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 classic To Pimp a Butterfly as the runner-up, while Kanye West‘s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy took the top spot. See the rest of the “100 Best Albums of the 2010s” at Genius.com.
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