Frank Ocean: Channel ORANGE Reviewed by Marques Wayne

First of all, it would be futile and somewhat irresponsible to ignore Frank Ocean's "coming out" preceding the release of Channel ORANGE, his major label solo debut, since most people hadn't even heard of him before the announcement (Is he related to Billy Ocean?).  Well, correction; they may have heard him, but didn't know who he was.  This was pretty much the case with me.  I had heard his voice plaintively crooning on Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church In The Wild" and "Made In America" but didn't know much about him as an artist.
Most people's knee-jerk reaction might've been to see Ocean's revelation about his sexuality as a ploy to drum up some attention for his album.  This, in and of itself, speaks to an important shift in our culture.  Controversy is often good for business, but 20, even 10 years ago this would have been a surefire way to derail a music career, not boost sales.  The fact that Ocean is a hip-hop artist actually still leaves his fate unclear.  Though pop artists like Adam Lambert are out and proud, there is no precedent for such a thing in hip-hop.  The quotes placed around the words coming out stem from the fact that he didn't really make a statement of "Yep, I'm gay," so much as he simply revealed that he has been in love with a man.  Time will tell whether this is a transient David Bowie phase, or if it's a legitimate confession of bisexuality.  Either way, for now he has everyone's attention, so the question is does he have something to say?

Luckily for Ocean, that's an area where he doesn't have anything to worry about.  Revelations aside, Channel ORANGE is a wonderful debut.  A friend of mine, remarked that the lyrical complexity will probably take listeners a while to catch on to, and he might be right, but I don't think that it will hinder any initial connection to the material.  He so effortlessly wraps his metaphors in plain prose that you're grooving to it before you're aware of the layers beneath them.  "Sweet Life" plays like a breezy summer jam in the vein of Carl Thomas's "Summer Rain" so you're forgiven if you don't quite catch the existential social commentary just below the surface.  As someone relatively new to the game, songs like "Super Rich Kids [featuring Earl Sweatshirt]" are no surprise.  As a 24-year-old recording artist in Los Angeles, I'm sure he's seen his share of spoiled TFK's whose "maids come around too much," but "parents ain't around enough," he's just one of the precious few actually addressing it.   And that, in a nutshell, is what sets Ocean apart from his contemporaries.  The only draw back to being so thoughtful is that it rarely feels like he's having fun.  But I'm not going to pick nits.

Though he could easily fit into an R&B or Pop format, at heart, Ocean is clearly hip-hop.  It's not hard to imagine an artist like Common rapping the lyrics to "Crack Rock" or "Pyramids."  Sometimes this causes him to lean toward a conversational style of singing that a lot of the current rapper/singers have adopted in recent years, but he fortunately doesn't stray into the whiny, emo register of some other artists (sorry, Drake).  It just makes it all the nicer when he opens up vocally on songs like "Sweet Life"and "Bad Religion," the latter of which could arguably be about unrequited love, or actual religion, or both.  In the closing song, "Forrest Gump" Ocean presents a simple love song to man.  It has a touch of camp to it, but nonetheless feels heartfelt and earnest.

While fun might not be the best adjective to describe Channel ORANGE, don't let that stop it from becoming the album of the summer.  When you're seeped in the seasonal languor, allow the layered subtext to sink in while chilling at the family cookout, coasting down the highway, or relaxing on the beach.

 ********* 9/10 headphones