Album Review: Frank Ocean – Channel Orange

Artist: Frank Ocean
Album: Channel Orange
Label: Def Jam

Odd Future’s resident R&B crooner, Frank Ocean, created a world of hype with his 2011 mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra and Channel Orange delivers on it. ‘Thinkin Bout You’ and ‘Pyramids’, the two tracks leaked ahead of its release, are sultry soul gems with a hint of 808 and the rest of the album stands up to these two instant classics. His full-length debut adopts the same approach as his mixtape, gliding effortlessly from track to track with cassette clicks and intimate chatter. Tales of pushers, addicts and heartbreak run throughout, and the sombre tearjerker ‘Pink Matter’, featuring an inspired cameo from OutKast’s Andre 3000, will have the ladies on their knees, weeping. Elsewhere, OF’s Earl Sweatshirt lends his promising rhyming skills to ‘Super Rich Kids’ and Pharrell Williams applies his superior production talents to ‘Sweet Life’. This is the best release from the Odd Future collective to date.
(David McNamara)

Rating: 4.5/5