Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange: Album Review - Part 1

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This is part 1 of my two-part discussion of the album Channel Orange.

Channel Orange is one of my favorite albums of all time. It is Frank Ocean’s second full-length album and was released in 2012. With the tracks “Thinking Bout You” and “Lost” serving as iconic R&B hits, and the songs “Pyramids” and “Sierra Leone” touching on heavy issues with an entertaining twist, Ocean creates an album that transports the listener into an entirely new environment.

Before Channel Orange, Frank Ocean released Nostalgia, Ultra (in 2011) which propelled him into the center of the contemporary R&B scene. Channel Orange solidifies his stature as an R&B legend and serves as a more finely tuned and introspective version of his prior album.

The first track on the album, “Start”, provides the foundation for the rest of the album by introducing the listener to the format of the work. The track features sounds of an early-model TV being turned on and the sounds of channels being flipped through. The track ends abruptly, and when the next song, “Thinking Bout You”, starts, the listener is given the impression that it is yet another channel on the TV. The album’s title connects to this idea, insinuating that the entire work is taking place on a TV channel, more specifically, Channel Orange.

The track “Thinking Bout You” features Ocean giving an emotionally charged vocal performance overtop a series of synth drums and guitar strums. Ocean sings directly to the listener, reciting a sort-of love letter supposedly written about a former flame. The subsequent track, “Fertilizer” is an interlude that immerses the listener into the world that Frank Ocean is building. The track swells with sounds of TV channels flipping and ends with Frank singing a short jingle about ‘Fertilizer’. The jingle is reminiscent of a TV advertisement, and for this reason, I think that “Fertilizer” is one of the most important tracks on this album. Although it is not a song, its contribution to the lexical field that Ocean is building is integral. Without the powerful auditory imagery featured in this track, the album’s central allusion to a TV channel would be significantly weakened.

My personal favorite song on this album comes next, “Sierra Leone”. This track resonates with me every time I listen to it, and the relaxing lexical field created by Ocean’s lyrics contributes to this. Still, Ocean’s relaxing tone contrasts with the heavy subject matter of this song. The lyrics: “Spendin' too much time alone, (And I just ran outta Trojans), Horses gallop to her throne, (We were behaving like teenagers), Yes, we're behaving like teenagers, (Makin' less than minimum wage), Still inside our parents' homes” utilize imagery and diction to develop a narrative of teen pregnancy. The clever pun: “And I just ran outta Trojans, Horses gallop to her throne” uses the speaker’s lack of the condom brand ‘Trojans’ to poke fun at the idea of ‘Trojan horses’ (sexual innuendo) ‘galloping to her throne’ (impregnating the woman). Puns like this are frequent throughout the song, and they continuously convey a tone of childishness, further contributing to Ocean’s central theme of teen pregnancy.

Another favorite of mine is the song “Sweet Life”. In this track, Frank touches on themes of economic prosperity and privilege. He sings: “You've had a landscaper and a housekeeper since you were born, the sunshine always kept you warm”. Here, Ocean discusses the implications of living a privileged life and the opportunities that come with it. He states that ‘the sunshine always kept you warm’, which conveys the idea that everything in life worked out to ‘your’ advantage, implying that those with wealth and privilege often don’t have to work hard to get ahead in life. This theme is carried forward into the subsequent interlude “Not Just Money”, where an unnamed speaker discusses the implications of wealth and prosperity. Themes of depression and mental health issues are tied in here, with the speaker stating: “Please decondition yourself, it's not just money, it's happiness”. On a personal level, I think that what the speaker states is extremely relevant for modern society. Although many people spend their lives chasing wealth, studies have shown that not only is depression more common in wealthy countries than in the less wealthy, but also that rich kids tend to be more depressed and anxious than their middle- or low-income counterparts. This interlude transitions into the next track beautifully, as the implications of wealth on the mental health of “Super Rich Kids” are analyzed.

The final song that I will talk about in this review is “Super Rich Kids”, Frank Ocean’s exposé on the trials and tribulations of mega-rich teenagers. Although I will try to squeeze my analysis into one paragraph, you should expect another full-length article discussing just this song. The track features powerful keyboard, drum, and synth sounds that swell together to create a luxurious listening experience. With this, the depressive lyrics contrast starkly with the positive and upbeat tone used by the singers and background music. The song starts with the lyrics: “The maids come around too much, parents ain't around enough”, which sets the stage for Ocean’s discussion of rich kids with absent parents. Still, although the ‘maids come around too much’, even they do not seem to care about these kids: “We'll both be high, the help don't stare, they just walk by, they must not care”. This lyric provides nuance into the narrative that Frank is building. Although the kids are breaking the law by getting high, their only concern is the fact that the ‘help don’t care’. This suggests that they are getting high as a rebellious way to get their parents’ or maids’ attention. The extent to which they have been abandoned manifests in their regular drug use. But, when these kids aren’t given the attention they seek, they begin to feel apathetic: “A million one, a million two, a hundred more will never do”. Here, Ocean examines the paradox of plenty. While one would assume that more money = more happiness, the song thus far has demonstrated that this is certainly not the case. For this reason, the kids’ apathy towards accumulating more money connects to the interlude “Not Just Money”. As I said before, the speaker in this interlude argues that life isn’t just about money, it’s about happiness. In this lyric, the children are beginning to realize this and contextualize the fact that ‘a million more will never do’, meaning that even a million more dollars will not bring them the happiness they seek.

Overall, this album is one of my favorite projects of all time. Every single song featured in this project is unique and excellent in its own way, and they all provide different lenses into the wide variety of themes developed by Frank Ocean.

Favorite Tracks: Sierra Leone ~ Sweet Life ~ Super Rich Kids

Least Favorite Tracks: NONE

Overall Rating: 10/ 10