“It’s poetic, sonically unhindered, and feels like it’s been presented in its purest, most true form. Tim says his connection with Blonde was immediate. “I wanted to create something that captured how it felt at that time,” says Tim, “the beginning of our relationship, just hanging out, listening to Blonde and feeling like it was all too good to be true.” The track was the soundtrack to the start of their relationship, and it influenced ‘Solo III’ from their 2017 album BATS. The pair have matching ‘Solo’ tattoos on the back of their left arms.
‘Solo’ finds him attempting to find solace in hedonistic pursuits while travelling in solitude, while ‘ White Ferrari’ remains a stunning late-album highlight both as a showcase for his dexterous falsetto and his skill for writing moving, desperately sad vignettes full of empathy for their subjects.įOR Cub Sport’s Tim Nelson and fiance Sam “Bolan” Netterfield, the Blonde obsession runs deep. On ‘ Good Guy’, a blind date is painted in the most fragile terms possible, with quiet organ chords illuminating his gorgeous, achingly-real discontent with how modern technology has coloured dating (a theme that pops up throughout the album, the titular ‘ Facebook Story’ the most obvious example). It’s got that same sense of tranquil over-thinking to it, with lyrical and musical motifs intertwined into the fabric of the record’s surreal mood and stream-of-consciousness manner.īlonde’s lyrics aren’t quite impenetrable, but they’re engrossing in a lived-in, naturalistic way and authentic to Frank’s often baffling, stoner-y public persona. It’s almost passe to conflate drugs with Frank’s music at this point, but Blonde truly does feel like an acid trip at times. Perhaps it remains so inscrutable because Frank refuses to ever pull back the curtains and reveal a true narrative, drip-feeding glimpses into his psyche instead. It’s an album that feels less linear on every new listen, and yet manages to remain a uniquely affecting portrait of 20-something ennui and malaise. MORE than a year after its sudden release, Frank Ocean’s Blonde remains a mystery in the extreme a beguiling tone poem of an R&B record that both quotes Elliott Smith and features Yung Lean a few tracks later.