“Do you not think so far ahead/’Cause I been thinkin’ ’bout forever,” Frank Ocean sings in his unbelievable, Pharrell-esque falsetto on Channel Orange‘s moody opener “Thinkin Bout You.” Ocean possesses a bold and meditative soul, as evidenced by his measured lyricism (and, yes, that letter).
Channel Orange is Ocean’s debut, but it sounds like the work of a seasoned veteran; his emphatic crooning on “Sweet Life” (“So why see the world/When you got the beach,” he belts out, and he seems to believe himself) is equally reminiscent of Anthony Hamilton and Stevie Wonder. But it’s also a distinctly modern sound, and throughout the record there are myriad reminders that he emerged from the same skewed scene that birthed OFWGKTA.
Indeed, when Earl Sweatshirt shows up for an effectively stoned guest spot on the slow-mo “Super Rich Kids,” it seems like a crowning moment for this scrappy new hip-hop generation—an evolution from pure anarchy to beautiful, controlled chaos. If Ocean can tame Odd Future, who knows what else he might be able to do.
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