The reviews for Frank Ocean‘s upcoming album Channel Orange are in — and they’re officially awesome. Ocean gave an exclusive sneak peek of the album’s 17 tracks to a group of select guests, and everyone was pretty much blown away.
FADER was there: “The reason Frank Ocean is so interesting is not that he’s a great singer (he is) or that he is audacious enough to pen 10+ minute songs (he does), or that he uses his voice less as a virtuosic display of his singing ability, but more as a vehicle for his songs. Frank Ocean is especially interesting because of how he exists outside the general conventions of the music industry … The album feels organic, but not retro—a musical leap forward for both Ocean and the genre.” You can read the full review by visiting FADER.com. Billboard was also there, and gave a more lyrical-based breakdown of the album: “The follow-up to last year’s lauded ‘Nostalgia/Ultra’ mixtape includes hints of inspiration from legends as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Prince, The Roots and D’Angelo. Still, Ocean doesn’t adhere to one sound, nor shape himself into something that people could peg solely to R&B … Lyrically, he’s a storyteller. He simultaneously unravels and explores — himself and those around him — through a diatribe of the privileged yet insatiable, (‘Super Rich Kids,’ featuring Odd Future‘s Earl Sweatshirt), soliloquies of heartbreak and abandonment, and confessionals. His falsetto breathes color into the content.” You can read the full review by visiting Billboard.com.
Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange is set for release via Island Def Jam on July 17th, and you can pick up your own copy on that day by visiting IslandDefJam.com. In the meantime, you can sit back and enjoy the amazingness that is “Pyramids”, the 10-minute centerpiece track of what promises to be one of 2012’s most phenomenal albums. For all things Frank Ocean be sure to visit FrankOcean.com, follow him on Facebook and Twitter, and check out all the North American dates for his MUST SEE summer tour by CLICKING HERE.
