Electric Relaxation: Channel Orange

A month ago, I wrote about "Pyramids" - Frank Ocean's nearly 10-minute ode to the past/present/queens/strippers/Egypt/and more. Despite my initial thoughts on the song, it didn't take away from the fact that Channel Orange was one of the most anticipated albums of the year for me and I still wanted to hear it in depth.

That review would be overshadowed by Ocean revealing his past with another man and him dealing with the heartbreak of that love not being fully reciprocated. Surprisingly, I saw most respond to this very well. It said a lot that in this day and age, a male R&B singer's career isn't in jeopardy from who he loves.

That brings me to Channel Orange. I wasn't sure what to expect from it but since I loved Nostalgia/Ultra, I knew was going to be quality. What I didn't expect was that it was so similar in mood despite touching on different themes.

Electric Relaxation: Frank Ocean "Pyramids"

I waited a couple weeks to hear this song because I wasn’t sure what to expect. 10 minutes of R&B? How could Odd Future’s singer carry a song for that long and it be good?

One of the reasons I like Ocean is because he’s creative. He’s not the best singer live but he knows how to deliver a song. He has a mix of confidence/introspection/storytelling that separates him from shallow singers because it feels genuine. He’s also a great writer and aside from Ne-Yo and The-Dream, I can’t say that about too many R&B singers since they fall into clichés.