Channel Orange — My Favourite Album of the 2010s

I haven’t done one of these reviews/articles in quite a while, but I thought it was about time to start writing again. While I was trying to decide on what to write about I thought of a series of ideas and landed on a collection of articles that focus on my favourite albums and films from every decade from the 1960s to the 2010s; I thought this would be good idea for a few reasons. Firstly, it would allow me to, for realistically the first time, properly articulate and think about just why these are my favourites and what makes them great. But it would also, if it’s done well, hopefully convince anyone reading this to give said albums and films a chance if they never had before. For anyone who knows me none of these picks should be much of a surprise. In reality none of them are niche, underground picks so even those who do not know me shouldn’t be surprised much. Anyway, without further ado here is my favourite album of the 2010s.

The first album I am going to talk about, if the title and picture above hadn’t given it away, is Frank Ocean’s first studio album Channel Orange. I first listened to this album in 2017 after only previously hearing the song Lost, one that despite being as great as the rest of the album, is definitely the most commercialised of the whole record. Although, to be honest, I’m glad I didn’t listen when it was first released in 2012 because I would have been a 13 year old who only really listened to rock and indie rock and I don’t think I would have truly appreciated it then. For me this record has everything you could possibly want from a RnB album. I think that’s the term that best suits the tone but this definitely isn’t simply an RnB album. It is an amalgamation of different genres and styles but it is done in such a manner that no song feels out of place. They all work so well together in creating the tone of the album and it’s surprising to see songs that feel like pop song come straight after a song that is heavily progressive and done in a way that doesn’t feel misplaced. I’m not going to talk about every single song on this album because quite frankly that would take too long and no one wants to read me rambling on for 20 minutes, so instead I will talk about 3 songs, 3 songs that I think encapsulate this creative experimentation of genres best. Those 3 songs being Crack Rock, Pyramids and Pink Matter.

The one constant that I think is prevalent in all of his songs, is the poetic and deep storytelling through his lyrics and none of the aforementioned songs are exceptions. I think this is partly why the different styles are not off-putting, because his vocals and lyrics do so well in bridging the gaps between each track. With this in mind I want to move onto the first of the songs that I think offer its own style, that being Crack Rock. Crack Rock is one of the songs on the album, similar to Lost, that I would describe as being more commercialised than the rest of the album, now this is in no way a bad thing, I just mean that it is one of the easier songs to appreciate and listen to. It doesn’t do much in the realm of experimentation and is safer than some of the other songs. It’s the type of song that you’re more likely to hear in the charts but again this is obviously not a bad thing. It provides a nice break from the more thematically deep and unfamiliar tracks, and as I said before there is one constant with his music and that is the lyrics and storytelling. While the instrumental is relatively safe, the lyrics stop it from being another generic chart-topper. Underneath the guise of the upbeat instrumentation lies a sad story of loneliness and addiction. Frank speaks of an unnamed person, who through research turned out to be loosely based on his grandfather, who seeks out the help of drugs in an attempt to escape his own depressed state. It’s done in way that is not explicit in its subject matter but also in a way that is not overly difficult to decipher. “You’re smokin’ stones in abandoned homes” is about as close you can get to the message of the song without outright saying it. It isn’t the most complex of his song but it is just as beautiful. For me, this song is Frank dipping his toes into the style of production and song writing that he explores more later in the album. He hides a depressing story in the case of a song that makes you want to move; that is one part of what makes this album a masterpiece.

Next I will note on the 10 minute experiment that is Pyramids, a song that is the outcome of what feels like 5 genres being pushed together, and it is also my favourite song on the album. Throughout the runtime you hear hints of prog rock, 80s dance music, pop, RnB and even more I may be forgetting or just haven’t noticed. It takes you on a journey instrumentally that is hard to fully appreciate on your first listen. It walks this line so delicately and switches genres so freely that it shouldn’t work and yet it does, it is such an interesting and unique song I cannot think of another like it. It takes from so many parts of music history and ends up creating a song unlike anything I have ever heard before and I love every second of it. If this wasn’t enough it is also host to one of the best beat switches of recent memory, a deeply complex story that is rife with poetry told by an excellent vocal performance as well as an outro that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Guns N’ Roses song. There is a little bit for everyone here and so much to absorb with that it can be slightly overwhelming, but that is why it’s great that this album has so much to offer because straight after this song you’re dancing to Lost and grooving to the silky vocals.

Finally, we turn to Pink Matter. Here we have a song that unlike both the previous mentions, has a lowkey instrumental. It is slow and quiet compared to the strength of Ocean’s voice. Repeating piano notes and soft guitar build towards a track that is different to anything else on the album. Quite frankly Frank’s lyrics in this song are some of the most obscure and most open to interpretation on the record. But really that doesn’t matter because we aren’t so much listening to what he’s saying, more how he’s saying it because this song also features what I believe to be the best vocal performance on the album. He puts you into a trance and it doesn’t matter what he’s saying because the way he’s saying it is so emotionally impactful. And after all this we get a feature from Andre 3000 that I was not expecting and thought wouldn’t work and I was quickly proved wrong. His wordplay is some of his best, the flow works immaculately with the tone of the song and the verses existence alone within the song gives yet another reason as to why Frank Ocean is unlike any other musician working today.

I don’t really want to go on too long here because realistically not many people will have made it this far, I just want to end it by saying this album was a shock to me the first time I listened to it. It was so unlike any of my other favourites at the time and I wasn’t expecting much, and yet here I am writing this. If you have made it this far and haven’t heard this album before I implore you to give it a try, I don’t think it will disappoint. And that's why it’s my favourite album of the 2010s.