Okay, by now you should know the way I do my reviews. I sugar coat NOTHING and I make sure that you don’t waste your money on overrated albums. I do the reviews rarely because I don’t want to be that Hip Hop writer that is giving unwanted opinions and reviews. But this was a must do…

Now, I am somewhat a Frank Ocean fan. I downloaded Nostalgia like everyone else and played it out. I obsessed over We All Try like everyone else and bopped my head and tweeted every lyric in Novacane must like like everyone else. So, I am saying, I grade this with a positive mind on Frank Ocean and his music.

When I first saw the album cover and heard the album name, I figured it would be typical independent guy turned mainstream. Mainstream music often takes the most intricate artist and makes them simple. That means music will go to 100 to 0 in 1.9 seconds. Now, Channel Orange…something a little different. Channel Orange is about as nonmainstream as mainstream will get. All the music sounds like he wrote, recorded and mixed it in his basement. There is no or VERY MINIMAL audio enhancements to make his voice sound different than his normal sound. The beats aren’t intricate with sounds that sounds like they came from a T-Pain app and he uses a lot of instruments to give it a traditional sound. These are all traits of REAL music.

Some of the songs you may want to listen to are Sweet Life, Pilot Jones, Crack Rock and White. Those are the songs that I feel like had that clean, traditional sound. VERY smooth music BUT you have to be in the mood to listen to it. Much like The Weeknd, Frank Ocean’s music is set to certain moods. When I say moods, I mean this type of music is only for certain moods (IE. if you are about to rob a bank, sky dive, or anything with high intensity, you probably would not pop this album in). From what I see, this is a common trait of R&B singers, except Beysus. Yes, the Jesus of R&B and pop music. Beysus makes music for EVERY mood. Damn, y’all got me off topic now.

MOVING forward, as far as all the “straight” men who are boycotting the album because it is “gay” and they “can’t relate”. All honesty, if you love music, I can almost guarantee you will not catch any bisexual reference, because I damn sure didn’t. Now, if you are LOOKING for the references to him falling in love with a man he has on the album, well, you may want to really sit back and think about your sexuality and why you, as a straight man are looking for a gay or bisexual man to confirm his interest in men. Are you SURE you can’t relate to his music? ANY DAMN WAY… let’s get this to a close.

I grade the album an A-. The minus because, while it is creative, raw and beautiful, I have heard better and I am going to grade his music like I have heard better but I will not discredit it and the work he put in. I SAY IT IS WORTH THE $9.99. So, take a listen and tell me what you think about the album CHANNEL ORANGE.

Click here to buy Channel Orange.

REESE LEW