Frank Ocean - Channel Orange (2012)

forrest box chocolate ocean

and salty

interludes make me think of graham lambkin's amateur doubles.

stray thoughts after listening to this a couple more times this weekend:

dislike "sierra leone" and its placement on the album. it's thematically appropriate and helps develop the vibe, but it's musically boring and does nothing "sweet life" doesn't do a hundred times better. they even share the same dissolve to light instrumental jamming at the end. album would feel a lot more tight, immediate and varied out the gate without it. maybe that's missing the point.

channel orange is much more nostalgic than nostalgia, ultra. the musical mood is hazy and contemplative, and the narrator almost always seems to be looking backwards and outwards, at the people and events of his past life. even when he's addressing his own perspective, he seems removed from it: this is how things felt then. the album is unified by a sense of distance and dislocation. ironically, nostalgia, ultra was much more concerned with the here and now.

related to nostalgia and dislocation, channel orange pays a lot of attention to geography without generating much sense of place. that's not a fault. it's consistent with the reminiscent perspective. lot of talk of travel, too, the quick jumping from place to place (southern california, arizona, idaho, denver, sierra leone, ladera heights, arkansas, vegas, florida, the international travel litany in "lost").

what other pop music is so honest about indolence and wealth not earned but taken for granted? the idle good life as some shit that just got handed to you, attendant angsty narcissism ("i'm searching for a real love")

structure of the album seems to move from an idle youth with early romantic connections to a place of dissolution and loss, with bad decisions coming to bad ends, then back around to a sort of stock-taking middle distance. there isn't any resolution end, the narrator still seems caught up in nostalgic memory and lost love.

I've had to force myself to replay this thing.

yeah basically I enjoyed this while I was playing it but have had zero desire to play it again

huh. i figure i've got to listen to an album at least 5-10 times to get a real sense of it.

don't do that with everything, of course, but the albums i like best are those that i feel inclined to spend some time with

spent a lot of time with it last weekend

don't do that with everything, of course, but the albums i like best are those that i feel inclined to spend some time with

right

so, logically speaking, if I don't feel any compelling desire to spend time with this album...

yeah, igi. i'm enthusiastic, thus resistant to indifference.

^ open goal

i've tried this about five times and i don't really get it.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/frank-ocean-channel-orange,82827/

okay obv this dude likes the album a lot more than I do (I would have given it a B- and called it a day) but I want to hug him for his last paragraph because he saw the exact same types of predecessors as I did

he posts here, you can give him an ilx hug

*furiously ilx hugs Evan R*

live show was fascinating if only because i had no idea how massive he's gotten. Like 3K people going batshit over his every move, everyone screaming the lyrics to an album that's been out only about two weeks. Guy's voice is not that great live but he knows how to rock an arena already. Full band with DJ behind a bank of tvs playing excerpts from dragonball and guitar hero. On the intro to bad religion where he explained "it's just my life, etc" screamy woman behind me howling "WE LOVE YOU ANYWAY BABY" and the anyway is weirdly telling.

I've come around on the album but it required forced relistenings until I was able to boil down a solid EP of Sweet Life/Super Rich Kids/Crack Rock/Pyramids/Lost/White/Monks/Bad Religion and now it's stuck badly in my head. Such a weird mix of Stevie and Andrew Lloyd Weber and indolence.

feel like this guy is around for the long haul and that this album is gonna be looked back on as a flawed, slightly embarrassing coming of age step with a few legit classics. Sweet Life/Crack Rock/Pyramids might be a good enough collective for me to think about this as a best of the year contender but only cuz I don't wanna list them all as singles and cuz I should probably listen to more music

and yeah, thinking bout you as well so

feel like this guy is around for the long haul and that this album is gonna be looked back on as a flawed, slightly embarrassing coming of age step with a few legit classics.

yeah I can see that---still like the mixtape better but I haven't really given this more than a few spins

Even the minor songs keep revealing how great they are to me. "Monks" most recently.

I think it's funny how hot people were to lump Frank in with the Weeknd when it's now apparent that FO uses affectlessness to cover strong feelings while Abel emotes to hide inner blankness.

feel like this guy is around for the long haul and that this album is gonna be looked back on as a flawed, slightly embarrassing coming of age step with a few legit classics

Yes...and he rode a wave of good intentions and misplaced biographical criticism.

Oh: I don't find any of it embarrassing, just underdeveloped or, in the case of "Pyramids," ambition biting off more than ability can (as yet) chew.

guys this is important
http://youtubedoubler.com/4Dm6
seriously, watch this through; there's some crazy ass pink floyd/wizard of oz shit going on
especially as the song transitions to part 2

seriously, the dance synchs up!
first mention of a cheetah is the cat!

mute first vid obvs

I think my favorite little moment on the album might be the small joy with which he sings the line "this showerhead feels so amazing"

or "this shower head"

hahahahaha, I hadn't thought of it that way. Thanks for having a dirtier mind than me.

That beat is so lifeless, though.

naw, it and "Sweet Life" back to back just kind of capture this sundazed vibe perfectly

^^

:/

You liking this album k3v?

completely forgot i downloaded the lonny breaux collection some time ago, this is like fifty demos. think i will have a go.

I completely forgot about this album.

My AOTY.

yup

up there

i'm with alfred, iirc i don't hate this album and even find it quite interesting but fuck me if i can ever remember its existence

otoh "Super Rich Kids" I play often and loud.

I completely forgot about this album.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, August 15, 2012 1:13 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i completely forgot about it too, which is weird considering what a ~buzz~ album it was only recently

MUSIC CRITCS ARE THE ART OF PRETEND FORGETFULLNESS

lol

i think i've had an irl conversation about frank ocean and/or the frank ocean album at least once a week since that fallon performance

Totally forgot about that thread xxp

Yeah I talk about this album a lot actually, with people who have little to no interest in r&b.

my sympathies

xp