InTune [#8]

Welcome back to episode eight of InTune!

Christopher Francis “Frank” Ocean is one of the most influential singer/songwriters of our generation. I can safely assume that nearly everyone in this school has heard at least one of his songs. His most well known album is “Blonde.”

According to IMDB, Frank has won varying awards, showing his relevance and ability to be extremely versatile. Frank has won: one Brit award, one GLAAD Media Award, one Grammy and one Webby Award. That’s not including his nominations for each of those as well as other award ceremonies. There may not be an extreme number of awards that Frank has won, but those do not define who an artist is. I mean, let’s be honest, so many award ceremonies are flukes and are bribed and just generally awful.

On Spotify, Frank has 27,757,351 monthly listeners alone. I don’t have Apple Music so don’t ask me about that, but I’m sure that number is high there too. Frank isn’t necessarily an underground artist and he’s not hidden from people on other platforms.

Enough of what Frank has won and preaching that he’s an elite artist. (Even though he truly is and this blog could be a whole five pages of what’s great about him, I choose not to do that. Mainly for the sake of my sanity and to save readers the time of reading all of that.)

Frank has released two studio albums, one mixtape, 21 singles. I mentioned an album previously, called “Blonde.”

“Blonde” is a musical masterpiece.

Instead of preaching about why “Blonde” is great and why everyone should listen to it, let’s talk about what has been achieved with this album along with a review of some of the songs, not all. (This isn’t the Tyler, the Creator episode of InTune.) Mainly reviewing the most popular songs that people care most about. Some tend to not care about the lesser known songs.

“Blonde” is so popular because of the perfect mixture of indie, hip-hop, R&B and other similar styles in the album. Each line in each word has a meaning behind it, which would seem obvious, but, let’s be real, some songs just throw out lyrics for the fun of it.

I digress. Now onto the fun part, the review.

White Ferrari
Starting off the song, it hits you with some reminiscent lyrics. It sounds like one of the most depressing songs humanly possible to make. This is one of those songs that could make you sob in one minute. If there’s a song to add to a sad playlist, it would be this song.. Frank just really knows how to throw the most gut-wrenching, harrowing lyrics on a great backtrack and then behave like nothing ever happened. Near the end of the song is the most famous, definitely because it has the most agonizing part, a lullaby sound that even makes me drowsy. And in true crazy Frank fashion, it has a funky beat at the end that fades the song out.

Pink + White
I’m an absolute sucker for this song. This is the song that I could absolutely blast at maximum volume in any setting and want to jam out. It has such a gorgeous Frank beat and lyrics that could put anyone in a trance. Usually I like to research what the meaning behind certain songs are, but for this song, I don’t care. This is my silly little love song with one of the grimiest backtrack switches in human history. By the end of the song it gets depressing, but I expect nothing less because Frank covers it with the happy lulling beats anyways.

Chanel
This has to be Frank’s most popular song from the album alone. I’m pretty sure in 2019/2020 there was a TikTok dance created to this song? Don’t quote me on that. This is another song where I cannot fathom how Frank can sing to this kind of beat and just general background music and make it sound like a sweet melody to our ears. This song is also super out there, literally opening with the mention of Frank’s fluidity in sexuality, which was a complete power move in 2016. This song was him being raw and vulnerable, and most of 2016 was not supportive of that, if I remember correctly. So, for Frank to dedicate a whole song to that alone is insane, and written proof that he does not care. Not even forgetting that the beat to this song is killer and yummy for the ears.

Ivy
My old friend, Edgar, showed me this song after a super rough time in our lives. We would laugh about hoping our exes would feel this way about us because of the opening of this song. Frank sings at some point, “I ain’t a kid no more, we’ll never be those kids again,” which would most definitely hit someone like a truck if they never heard this song before. One thing I’m just now realizing about these songs, is that they are covering such sensitive topics that are hurtful, or even saddening. Ivy is gorgeous, with a beat that covers typical sickeningly sad lyrics. Don’t let Frank trick you guys. These songs are devious and will bring up feelings you forgot you had.

Pretty Sweet
No one ever talks about this song and it enrages me to my core. This song is quite literally such a banger, it’s crazy.. This song is just showing us listeners using something “pretty sweet” to live with anguish and just living life in the present. It also switches up the beat completely around halfway through the song, which catches listeners attention like bees to a flower bed. It’s a chaotic soulful song that starts off with complete jumbles of messy clips, sounding like static. The music itself sounds paranoid and reels listeners in completely, making them want more and more. “Pretty Sweet” is so underrated and so many people hate it because it’s not like “Chanel” and it’s not his most popular. Which is bogus, because “Pretty Sweet” has a pretty amazing beat and general track to it.

That’s all for this week of InTune. I hope you enjoyed this edition on Frank Ocean, and I hope it encourages you to listen to some more of his music, whether it be an album or a single.

See you later!