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Tillmans’ evolution throughout the 2000s and 2010s is well-captured in “To Look Without Fear.” Some of the works on display didn’t involve a camera at all, but were created by shining lasers and hand-held lights on photosensitive paper. Most images since 2008, including the Ocean portrait, were taken on a digital camera. What we have in Blonde is yet another masterpiece by the enigmatic Frank Ocean. Utterly different from Nostalgia, Ultra and Channel Orange, we experience and learn a new side of Frank.
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This album is a demanding challenge and it has bits that could be deciphered well through December of this year. But even in the spots where Ocean leaves the audience confused, this feels like it's going to be a highly influential collection. If the chances Ocean takes on this record aren't enough, his smooth songs full of chilled, occasionally jazzy chord-progressions will be. So was Frank Ocean so pure in his artistry that he didn’t actually care about the hype that built up to a fever pitch over four long years?

Frank Ocean's "Blonde" is About Taking Shrooms at Caltech
The falsetto freak-out towards the end of the track sounds like it may be a momentary Prince tribute of sorts. "Blonde" is a mesmerizing collection, but it's one that tests the listener, depending on tastes. Most groundbreaking albums don’t go down all that smoothly on the first listen. Like Beyoncé’s "Lemonade," this album is designed to be a challenging bit of sonic art intending to redefine the borders and expectations of modern R&B.
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In June 2012, he unveiled a new track, Pyramids, again via his Tumblr site. The following month he performed another track from the album on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Also in July, Ocean posted an open letter to his website, in which he revealed that he had feelings for both men and women. Many of his colleagues in the music business immediately showed their public support for his courageous decision to be open about his sexuality, although he made a point not to label his orientation.
Ocean debuted the hair color while hanging out with fellow Cool Teens™ Kendall Jenner and Luka Sabbat in New York City this weekend. Sabbat tucked his track pants into his boots and had on shoulder pads of the Balenciaga variety. Dedicated fashion people that they are, everyone wore an expression of dead seriousness while the paparazzi was taking their photos. Seriously, no wonder these people get paid to front ad campaigns. Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years. Surprising, to me, because the current phase is what I was asking the cosmos for when I was a kid.
The 417 works themselves appear similarly breezy and casual, while also communicating a razor-sharp precision. Born in West Germany in 1968, Tillmans began taking pictures as an adolescent. In 1990, he moved to England for art school, and he started landing gigs for magazines like i-D, Interview and Butt to document underground club and gay scenes with his camera. “To Look Without Fear” includes celebrated images from this time, such as a double portrait of his friends Lutz and Alex sitting in a tree, appearing to wear nothing but large raincoats. The album’s title is stylized as “Blonde” on the cover but is referred to as “Blond” on Apple Music and other platforms.
Frank Ocean's queer revolution: How “Blond(e)” asks us to see queerness as the new normal - Salon
Frank Ocean's queer revolution: How “Blond(e)” asks us to see queerness as the new normal.
Posted: Tue, 23 Aug 2016 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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So, though we didn’t have much of a say in the matter, I’m glad we waited. Because Blonde is truly beautiful, and now it has a moment of its own. Here, Frank, in a subtle way, is showing us the absurdity of labels.
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That same year, Ocean began to work with the Los Angeles-based hip-hop collective Odd Future, most notably with Tyler, the Creator, who encouraged Ocean in his songwriting. Around this time, he also met producer Tricky Stewart, who helped land Ocean a contract with Def Jam as a solo artist. The following year, Ocean officially changed his name to Christopher Francis Ocean, believing that the new name would look better on magazine covers. The eventual image used on the cover is Ocean’s rendition complete with green hair — it’s the source photo on a trip. In the album cover, shot by photographer Wolfgang Tillman, we see a shot of Ocean in a bathtub, hair dyed green, with his hand covering his face. At first glance, this looks mildly contradictory to the title of the album.
The first finds Frank reflecting on his life and accomplishments in a stream of consciousness style. He rambles about fame, religion, and sexuality while referencing popular icons who died at a young age such as 2Pac and Selena. “Good Guy” touches on ideas of loneliness and emptiness experienced from fruitless encounters. The track outlines a story of Frank going out on a blind date with a guy who he met through a mutual friend.
Skyline To, featuring a subtle appearance by Kendrick Lamar, is a standout track on Frank Ocean’s Blonde that muses on the ephemeral joys of summer fading into memory. The song’s dreamy, understated production, Ocean’s evocative lyrics and Lamar’s nuanced contributions capture the transient nature of time, love, and youth. It’s a reflective piece on the impermanence of life’s moments, underscored by the changing skyline and the realization of inevitable change. Frank Ocean’s green hair is more than just a style choice; it’s a multifaceted expression of his artistry, personal experiences, and perhaps even his activism. From its potential roots in Chromesthesia to its rich symbolic meanings, the green hair serves as a lens through which we can explore deeper layers of identity and expression.
Ocean’s use of Auto-Tune adds a layer of detachment, mirroring the emotional distance between the lovers, making it a stark reflection on the complexities of connection and isolation. Everything about the album has people talking, and the mere naming of the album has sparked much discussion among Frank’s fans. Amid the mass hysteria surrounding police brutality in Ferguson, Orlando, and other pockets across the United States, we bearly heard a peep out of Frank.