“Blonde (Blond)” was the second album released by Frank Ocean on Aug. 20, 2016 and the most recent up to date. It continues to be his most popular album as well. It has 17 tracks on it with no features so you are indulged with Ocean’s voice the entire hour it takes to listen to the full album. 

According to Nielsen Music, Blonde debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart during its release in August 2016 and had 404 million streams in the US in 2017. It was also recognized as No. 79 on “Rolling Stones” best albums of all time. 

“Blonde” was a long-awaited album by many of Ocean’s fans because at the time of its release, he hadn’t released any music since “ Channel Orange”.  

“I had the time of my life making all of this. Thank you all. Especially those of you who never let me forget I had to finish. Which is basically every one of y’all…” Ocean said on his Tumblr page. 

When looking at the bigger picture of the album, the listener discovers it is Ocean telling his story about his younger years recollecting on the “innocence and purity and loss thereof..” according to Genius. The album also explores falling in and out of love, learning to love oneself, family, drugs and depression. 

Although I am obsessed with every single song in this album, my favorite is “Ivy.”  In this song, Ocean describes a failed relationship that, in a way, was toxic but worth all the memories. It dives into adolescence and falling in love at a young age. The line, “We’ll never be those kids again” explains how youth is just a tiny glimpse of the whole life in front of you.  

“Blonde” will forever be one of the best albums, in my opinion.  It is one of those albums that never gets old, even as the years go by.  I have gotten to grow with each song and relate to it as I have become older.  Some of the songs are sad in ways because they are so relatable, but I would 10/10 recommend this album.