Elsewhere it flows in subtle ways from one track to the next, an inexorable sense of a narrative being spun out but never spelled out. ItвЂ™s a carefully structured album to boot: the segue from Be Yourself, constructed from a concerned phone message from OceanвЂ™s mother, into Solo, an intensely affecting song about drugged paralysis, is just the most obvious example. WHICH IS BASICALLY EVERY ONE OF YAвЂ™LL.вЂќ Once youвЂ™re immersed in it, it becomes abundantly clear heвЂ™s taken this seriously, and this very much is a finished album. ESPECIALLY THOSE OF YOU WHO NEVER LET ME FORGET I HAD TO FINISH. Another of OceanвЂ™s Tumblr posts reads вЂњTHANK YOU ALL. It only takes a couple of plays to put paid to that suspicion. One might be tempted on first hearing to think that the tangled and overlong creative process has got the better of Ocean, and that heвЂ™s just released a hodge-podge of more or less finished ideas.

ThereвЂ™s a rap verse in Japanese at the end of Nikes. Seven of the 17 tracks are under the three-minute mark.

ItвЂ™s a very subdued record: the melodies meander, more often than not without drums, and snatches of dialogue and weird electronic glitches interrupt conventional-seeming parts. Sonically, thereвЂ™s no dramatic shift from Endless, the вЂњvisual albumвЂќ that appeared just two days ago: indeed it could be a continuation of that album. I TOOK A NAP, BUT ITвЂ™S PLAYING ON APPLE RADIO RN.вЂќ ItвЂ™s titled Blonde online and in his Boys DonвЂ™t Cry magazine, which accompanies the release, but Blond on the album CD artwork вЂ“ which also manages to misspell вЂњElliot SmithвЂќ (Ocean borrows the entire chorus of SmithвЂ™s Fond Farewell for his track Siegfried). This long-teased albumвЂ™s eventual release as an Apple Music stream was announced on his Tumblr with a post that read: вЂњFUCK, SORRY. F rank Ocean seems to like to look chaotic, even slapdash.

Blonde frank ocean album credits