With it being four years since the debut of Frank Ocean’s last album, it’s safe to say that his loyal fans were itching for more. “Frank Ocean has been playing with my emotions for awhile now, so I almost cried when he finally dropped the album,” said senior Matayo Robinson. For many others, the arrival of Blonde was an answered prayer.

The artist’s unique voice mixed with a variety of EDM background music gives the album an interesting flavor. Blonde gives way to a range of slow, upbeat, and instrumental-infused songs. For example, “White Ferrari” showcases Ocean’s smooth and mysterious voice, while “Nikes” captures listeners with its bass-bumping and alternative feel. “At first I didn’t like the album because iTunes didn’t do it justice, but once I listened to the whole thing on Spotify I ended up really liking it,” Senior Ava Coles said. iTunes only gives 90 second previews of each song, so it’s hard to get a feel for the song before the time limit is up.

“Godspeed” is another song that highlights Ocean’s voice quality and range. While the album has a nice variety of songs, I think some songs such as “Facebook Story” and “Good Guy” are more so filler-songs to take up space in the album instead of to capture the listener. Also, Ocean has such a nice voice to begin with that he doesn’t always need the background music. Junior Deija Brooks wasn’t as thrilled by the album, saying it was just “ok”. I have to agree with her; an album four years in the making should completely blow listeners away, and I don’t think Blonde has that kind of potential. All in all, I think Ocean’s new album has sunk in its attempts to capture listeners.