blond(e)
| Frank Ocean
blond(e)
Blonde (alternately titled blond) is the third studio album by American singer Frank Ocean. It was released on August 20, 2016, as a timed exclusive on the iTunes Store and Apple Music, and followed the August 19 release of Ocean's visual album Endless. Initially known as Boys Don't Cry and teased for a July 2015 release, the album suffered several delays and was the subject of widespread media anticipation leading up to its release. - Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Richly emotional songs for a quieter, more meditative space.
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NME
Intimate yet inscrutable.
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RollingStone
A Dizzy, Trippy, Druggy Marvel.
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The Guardian
A baffling and brilliant five-star triumph.
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The Skinny
Soulful, impeccable production shines on every heartbreak and highlight
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Drowned in Sound
Feels like a confessional, one of naked pain, powerful acceptance and so much knowing ambiguity.
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popMatters
Passes with flying colors, making him not only one of the most unique R&B artists of our time, but also one of the best as well.
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The Quietus
If you value artistry at all, you would do him an injustice by not taking your time with this record.
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CoS
R&B crooner returns with avant-garde minimalism and understated depth.
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EW
Ocean shows himself to be one of pop’s foremost innovators.
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Chicago Tribune
Worth the wait.
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PASTE
Fluid and fluctuating, one man in motion. This is what freedom sounds like.
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Pretty Much Amazing
More assured and consistent than Channel Orange.
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CLASH
It demands your attention, but more importantly, it deserves it too.
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musicOHM
You’re likely to be seduced by its charms.
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The Line of Best Fit
Album is poetic, weird, complicated and quietly pertinent.
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exclaim
Vibrant, it colors outside the lines.
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Under the Radar
Is far less accessible than its predecessor. And that's not a bad thing.
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AV/MUSIC
As Blonde gets closer to the finish line, the same themes get explored again and again with a more collage-like musicality.
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American Songwriter
This is music that fascinates on first listen but requires multiple spins for its complexities and idiosyncrasies to take hold.
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MOJO
It’s a beguiling, meandering sprawl that rewards total immersion.
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No Ripcord
For every low point there’s the unquestionable standouts.
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Tiny Mix Tapes
The words on record are breathtaking for their deep focus, which is microscopic to the point of vaguery.
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DIY
Frank’s rich sense of storytelling is still here, it’s just fragmented.
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SLANT
Every bit the rich, densely layered album fans were expecting.
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SPIN
Amplifies our most vivid feelings, and Blonde is a wholehearted, not obtuse, argument against clarifying them.
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NOW
Blonde delves even further into Ocean’s creeping sense of mortality.
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The New York Times
Blonde is dewy, radiant and easeful, with an approach to incantatory soul that evolves moment to moment.
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Los Angeles Times
Frank Ocean's minimalism sets 'Blonde' apart from recent releases by Beyoncé, Rihanna and Kanye West.
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The Telegraph
An album that will make an indelible mark on pop culture.
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ALL MUSIC
An undoubtedly reactive work, this is undiluted and progressive nonetheless.
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HIPHOPDX
Much of Blonde sounds more like a minimalist soft rock record with its sparse, isolationist guitars and pianos; little to no drums; and choruses that fade into the rest of Frank’s dense, congested lyrics.
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INDEPENDENT
A trickling bubblebath of an album that ultimately runs lukewarm.
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VULTURE
Considers Identity, Sexuality, and the Roads Not Taken.
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The VERGE
Exists in a beautiful limbo.
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GQ
It’s also just a beautiful record.
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NPR
Detangling Frank Ocean's 'Blonde': What It Is And Isn't.
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DJBOOTH
Respect the chef, respect the artist.
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Sputnik Music
Blonde is a triumph for this sentiment.
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PASTE
Blonde is Ocean’s life as he experiences it: fluid and fluctuating, one man in motion.
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High Snobiety
Frank was right to take his time.
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Financial Times
The powerful album is suffused with nostalgia for the past and employs old-fashioned organ vamps and hints of Stevie Wonder.
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Rhyme Junkie
It is sometimes depressingly beautiful.
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IDOLATOR
Ocean channels his personal life to tell the stories .
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AESTHETIC MAGAZINE
The album is an experimental pop accomplishment.
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The New Yorker
His free-form lyrics on “Blonde” are a no-hashtag zone.
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COMPLEX
Today's Most Evocative and Daring Male R&B Songwriter.
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fuse
Risks and detours constructed around Ocean’s natural vocal gifts and daring vision.
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The Fresh Committee
A love story designed for this generation yet applicable to all.
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AAA Backstage
Full of genre-bending, sonic surprises and melancholy narratives.
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Mashable
Album often feel like postcards written in a haze of smoke.
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FULCRUM
This is much bigger and better than any of us probably could’ve expected.
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Esquire
A meditation on sexual identity, self-control, and autonomy.
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The DIAMONDBACK
The masterful standout that it needed to be.
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TickPick
Frank Ocean gives us a deeply personal portrait of what it’s like to be alive right now, to love, and so much more.
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the CURRENT
'Blonde' follows Prince's boundary-breaking footsteps.
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A Bit of Pop Music
This was well worth the four years wait!
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STACK
Is Blonde any good? You better believe it is
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XXL
Is as avant-garde as it gets.
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HTF Magazine
Blonde is unmistakably different, diverse, and perplexing.
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hnhh
Worth the wait in every way imaginable.
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NYLON
It's funny, honest, sad, adventurous, thoughtful, and wildly creative.
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Unsung Sundays
A love letter to empathetic people.
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The Wall Street Journal
A Stream of Self-Revelation.
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GRIMY GOODS
THE POP MASTERPIECE THIS GENERATION HAS BEEN MISSING.
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Headstuff
Blonde is an incredible achievement.
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TUNED UP
Frank Ocean has returned in an unconventional but intriguing way.
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Vendor
Much more transcendent than his first album.
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owl radio
This was a highly anticipated album, and it surely delivered.
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The Musical Hype
It masterfully encompasses introspection, life, and love & sex.
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audioxide
It’s a good listen.
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RAP UP
Blonde is expected to soar to the top of the Billboard 200.
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Medium
Is both avant-garde in its treatment of rap, soul and R&B conventions and nostalgic throughout.
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SLASH GEAR
Ocean spends 45 minutes building a spiral staircase.
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Shanelle Wolfe
Wonderfully uplifting and encouraging.
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LUDDITE STEREO
Rich slabs of kaliedescopic.
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The Westlake Feather Duster
Blonde is about love, it’s about discovering sexuality, it’s about social media, it’s about battling with drugs, it’s about religion.
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GRAPHITE Publications
This is one you really just have to absorb yourself.
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