channel ORANGE by Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean's solo debut album has been getting a great amount of buzz. Ocean has made news recently by admitting that he is gay, perhaps the biggest amount if news is how little most folks seem to care about this.

The album he has just released however is one of the strongest of the year. With a range of musical styles, rap, Prince, Sly Stone, and other early Soul musicians Ocean is playing with the big boys on this album.

The first single Thinking About You has a strong backing track and shows influences from Prince. Sierra Leone is a sing song that sounds like anything but a song from 2012. This song would easily fit on a pre Purple Rain Prince album.

Continuing on the soul train Sweet Life starts with Ocean stating " the first song wasn't the single "

The strongest song to me in the album is " Super Rich Kids" in which Ocean laments too much wine, green, white lines, maid service and not enough time with parents one can see this song having a strong meaning and yet being embraced by the the same kids and culture it criticizes. I told my oldest son about this album, I could easily see this song being played by his set.

Pyramids a nine minute melt again visits Uncle Prince is sound and scope and is followed by Lost, a ramble on getting lost in the moment of living the high life.

Forest Gump is a potential single with actual references to the movie and the character, a nice beat, and Ocean's telling us how his fingertips and lips burn from the cigarettes.

The song most talked about is Bad Religion, Ocean sang this on a performance on Jimmy Fallon. Ocean has admitted that the song was about a love he had for a man when he was in his late teens. The song however speaks to anyone who has lost a love. The intro organ sounds even sound like a modest bit of influence from Prince's Let's Go Crazy. Ocean talks about any unrequited love being a Bad Religion is it brings you to your knees. Certainly we have all been there, from my eighth grade daughter to the folks you see in the bars and meat markets every Friday night. We are all seeking someone to fill the hole in our lives and when that attraction is unrequited it is as Ocean says " a one man cult." This is a very strong song.

Clearly in this review I do not have a great deal of references and understanding of soul music but I can tell you that this is a great album. The music is much greater than the sum of its parts. I have listened to this over the last couple of weeks more than any other music. I am impressing my kids with my diversity of musical taste. This album has the language that one can find objectionable like much of the soul/rap music but this album has clear artistic intent. The cursing is not a cheap, lazy way to sell records.

Spend some time with this record, a very talented artist.