Blonde by Frank Ocean: A Deep Dive

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by Lydia Tapias

photo by Jason Kempin

Released in the summertime, Blonde is a timeless staple defining the era of 2016. Blonde explores Frank Ocean presumably in his young adult years he explores loss, grief, love, heartbreak, sexuality, and at its core, duality. This cinematic,  avant-garde album has dreamy production, a masterclass in minimalism. The production on this album is truly something that makes it stand out.

For most R&B albums it’s not heavy in drums, featuring a lot of reverb and short delays on drum parts. The drums are sparingly used, so when they are, they feel explosive. Pitch shifting for example in songs such as "Nikes" and "Self Control" is used to imply showing a different side of himself or perhaps his younger self included in the dialogue. Majority of tracks rely heavily on chorus heavy guitars with simple melodic structures that allow Frank’s lyrics to really shine through creating a heavy feeling of nostalgia like a fading memory .  The synths are used as ambiance and floating pads make you feel like your isolated underwater. Finally, big orchestral pieces make it cinematic and haunting.

The album opens with the iconic track “Nikes”, including the aforementioned  pitch shifting creating chipmunk-like vocals to create somewhat of a mask. He critiques materialism while simultaneously relating to it. He speaks on heavy topics, such as the passing of Trayvon Martin. He opens the album with the theme of a love that isn’t reciprocated or “deep”, and feels surface level. This gives us a glimpse into his vague open ended storytelling. We get a sense of his emotional need to matter closing off the song with the lyrics, “I’m not him but I’ll mean something to you.” 

The album then continues to another heartbreaking yet beautifully composed track called Ivy. His lyrics are piercing starting off seemingly sweet, “I thought that I was dreaming when you said you loved me,” but quickly shifting to the harsh reality, “the start of nothing,” and  “we’ll never be those kids again.” It’s ending reflects this “messy ending” with chaotic distorted sounds of things being smashed. "Pink and White" is a song that feels light yet the lyrics explore the inevitable death that we must face. “It’s all downhill from here,” he paints the lyrics in sunsets and mentions the traumatic event of Hurricane Katrina that he experienced, bringing us closer to his psyche."Self Control" begins like "Nikes" with the pitch shifting. This song similarly explores unrequited love and the pain of not truly being seen by his lover (ironic with his use of “vocal masking”) with simple but profound lyrics, "you see me like a UFO.” He beautifully explores the agony of desire. "Good Guy" is a short track following Frank on a blind date with someone to whom it’s “just a late night out.” He explores the disappointment of shallow connections and how although he’s exploring connections, he’s still seeking something more than surface level. 

The core concept of Blonde is Duality. It famously splits down the middle at the exact midpoint of the album in the song “Nights”. A catchy beat switch signals a transition in the album from night to day. "Nights" is deeply reflective and introspective. He explores working day jobs and the stress of daily life as well as yearning again to be loved and not left alone, as seen with “been waiting for you all my night.” The psychedelic beat switch in the middle changes the tone from stress to his yearning to reminiscing on hardships such as having to move after Katrina and not having a home. This switches the album to an overall darker tone. "Close to You" is a beautiful rendition inspired by Stevie Wonders 1972 talk box performance. It has a robotic vocal yet dreamy drums that are laid back with lyrics revolving closeness and the abstract concept of it. "White Ferrari" is a harrowing track of an intensely silent car ride that may be “bad luck”. On a deeper meaning it’s an interpolation of The Beatle’s classic love song “Here, There and Everywhere“. It is then stripped  into a painfully devastating truth with lines such as “dilated eyes,” referencing the possible use of substances and even more profoundly, “I’m sure we’re taller in another dimension,” which speaks for itself. He ends it with, “I care for you still and I will forever,“ an oath that he is bound to their love eternally.

"Godspeed" with a beautiful orchestration  a warm swelling organ signals the ultimate act of release, “I let go of my claim on you.” Arguably the most important part of the song, even with an opening line like, “I will always love you how I do.” It becomes soulful and freeing unlike the heavier themes of the previous tracks.

Blonde is a beautiful album that encapsulates the intense human emotions it invokes a transformation through heartbreak. It leaves us in a suspended alternate reality like a subway ride in a big city. A decade later it stands stronger than ever.