In 2012, it was still novel for “everyone” to experience an album for the first time simultaneously online, and the impromptu late-night listening party undoubtedly added to Channel Orange‘s sense of importance. We wanted to hear Orange as soon as possible, and it instantly became one of the first “event” albums of the social media era.
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And it worked: Many of us really did purchase the album download immediately after Fallon. As this was the early 2010s, during the lull before streaming took hold, the rush release was intended to briefly circumvent piracy. First and foremost, it made Frank Ocean an artist that people wanted to see succeed.Īlso on Fallon, it was announced that Channel Orange was actually out right now, a week earlier than expected. This letter would inform how Channel Orange was subsequently heard and written about. Ocean appeared the night before the release on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and performed a startling rendition of one of the album’s most emotional tracks, “Bad Religion.” The song touched on the themes of unrequited love and personal identity that Ocean discussed in a widely read Tumblr post from one week prior, in which he revealed in heartfelt and poetic language that he had fallen in love with a man in 2009. Now all signs were pointing toward a major breakthrough. I had enjoyed and reviewed 2011’s Nostalgia, Ultra, a mixtape (not technically an album) that showed Ocean to be a singer-songwriter with tremendous potential he was just coming to realize. Like almost anyone who cared about popular music at the time, I was primed for this record. I have a clear memory of when Channel Orange was released in the summer of 2012. But is this really about these Frank Ocean albums, or does it actually say more about the people who write about music for a living? I have a theory that there are actually two 2010s - early 2010s and late 2010s - and these adjacent micro-generations are defined musically in part by Channel Orange and Blonde. Two things appear to be true in terms of how Channel Orange is now perceived - first, it’s indisputably a classic album of its era and, second, it seems to be regarded as a bit worse than Blonde. 148, ahead of John Prine’s self-titled debut and just below Jeff Buckley’s Grace.) ( Channel Orange meanwhile lagged behind at No. 79 - only three albums from the 2010s (Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade) did better, so perhaps Blonde is now considered that decade’s fourth best record. But on the magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list, compiled just one year later, Blonde rose all the way to No. 10, a stellar but of course slightly worse placement.) Over at Rolling Stone, Blonde came out over Channel Orange on its Best Albums Of The Decade list, popping up at No.
Initially released to enthusiastic but somewhat reticent reviews - many critics, including yours truly, found it to be somewhere between a masterpiece and an incomplete mess - Blonde has indeed over time overshadowed (or “outshined” or “eclipsed”) its predecessor.Ĭonsider that Pitchfork rated Blonde a 9.0 upon release – a stellar but slightly worse score than Channel Orange‘s 9.5 - only to rank it as the best album of the 2010s three years later. Actually, as far as critical consensus goes, “arguably” almost seems unnecessary at this point. That’s four - count ’em four! - indicators of “greatness,” all leaning in the opposite direction away from Channel Orange. For instance, Rolling Stone noted that Ocean’s second LP, 2016’s Blonde, has “arguably outshined Channel Orange in scope and impact.” Similarly, Stereogum also suggested that Blonde has “arguably eclipsed in terms of influence and prestige.”įor those keeping score, Channel Orange “arguably” is now down to Blonde in scope, impact, influence, and prestige. Except the critical love was curiously qualified in the same, specific way.
Earlier this month, Frank Ocean‘s first proper album Channel Orange turned 10, which naturally prompted writers to sing the praises of the highly acclaimed 2010s landmark.
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