After four years of silence, 28-year-old Frank Ocean released Blonde, a 17-track album that is woven with thoughts and influences. Ocean sings about fractured love “Good Guy”, substance abuse “Skyline Control”, and family values “Futura Free”.  

Blonde lacks beat, but Ocean makes up for it with his voice. The songs contain lyrics that seem unconnected to us unless we closely look at them. “In the wake of a hurricane/ Dark skin of a summer shade/ Nose dive in the flood lines/ Tall tower of milk crates,” these lyrics lightly touches on his time in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Listeners may not have had these same memories, but Ocean moves us regardless.

Ocean’s last song of the album, “Futura Free”, is the longest and most heartfelt. In this he yearns for youth, it makes you feel like you’re flipping through a yearbook and feeling unshed tears in your eyes at the group photos. The album’s greatest feature is the ability to expand when it is listened to with a new mindset. In this album you find that Frank Ocean is more than his voice, and Blonde helps him show in all ways in which he’s a true artist.