№ 76 of 100
Blonde
Blonde by Frank Ocean (2016), № 76 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. Blonde at 76 is the placement we lost the most arguments about internally. We let it lose; we still recommend the record.
Seventeen tracks in sixty minutes. Released August 20, 2016, a deliberately-experimental statement following Frank Ocean's 2012 Channel Orange. The album that consolidated Ocean as one of the leading commercial-pop voices of the 2010s.
- Released
- August 20, 2016
- Label
- Boys Don't Cry
- Producer(s)
- Frank Ocean (executive) · various
- Runtime
- 60:00 (17 tracks)
- Chart peak (US)
- #1 (Billboard 200)
- Chart peak (UK)
- #3 (UK Albums Chart)
- Certifications
- 2× Platinum (RIAA, 2017)
- Awards & honours
- Ranked #79 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums (2020)
Seventeen tracks in sixty minutes. Released August 20, 2016, a deliberately-experimental statement following Frank Ocean's 2012 Channel Orange. The album that consolidated Ocean as one of the leading commercial-pop voices of the 2010s.
Frank Ocean in spring 2016 was twenty-eight years old, four years past Channel Orange, and had been working on his sophomore album under sustained label and fan pressure. The eventual 2016 release was the result of approximately four years of deliberately-protracted development.
Recording extended approximately four years across multiple studios. Ocean's working method was deliberately-perfectionist with a roster of collaborators including Kanye West, Pharrell, Beyoncé, Tyler the Creator, André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, James Blake, and others.
The album's deliberately-experimental approach (the deliberately-pitch-shifted vocals on 'Nikes,' the deliberately-distinct two-part 'Nights,' the deliberately-extended 'Futura Free') consolidated Ocean as one of the leading commercial-pop voices of the 2010s.
Ocean released the album August 20, 2016 through his independent label Boys Don't Cry. Debut at US #1.
Blonde belongs at number seventy-six because it consolidated Ocean as a leading commercial-pop voice.
Pressing guide — the one to own
Despite being styled 'Blonde', the physical release is titled 'Blond' on its cover; it is a 2xLP gatefold on black vinyl, filed under XL Recordings with the Boys Don't Cry copyright/imprint (2016). It was NOT the album given out at the August 2016 pop-up shops (those distributed the Boys Don't Cry magazine and a CDr, no vinyl) — the first official vinyl was the 25 November 2016 'Black Friday' edition, sold online for 24 hours only. Earliest copies carry a 'Black Friday' shrinkwrap sticker; later backorder copies print 'XL Recordings' on the reverse and lack it. With huge demand and limited supply, sealed originals trade in the low-to-mid hundreds.
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