The 10 Best Lyrics From Frank Ocean's "Channel Orange"

As one of the most anticipated albums of 2012, Frank Ocean's Channel Orange dramatically lives up to expectations, presenting a dreamy, confused exploration of the human psyche and Ocean's own views on love and emotion. Starting as a simple TV broadcast, the album crashes into a cacophony of chaotically opposed feelings and hopeless, detached dreams. Frank chooses to center his album on love, but takes the already complex emotion into uncharted realms and wild places, eventually confusing his lusts and passions.

By the end, Ocean produces one of the more tangled albums in recent memory, but one filled perfectly with clever wordplay, impassioned pleas, and a very real sense of dread and fear to which everyone can relate. Channel Orange is an approach from left field, but one solidly deserving of praise and a thorough listen through the darker cracks of the human condition.

For a break down of the album, we've linked with RapGenius to bring you The 10 Best Lines From Frank Ocean's Channel Orange, a mix selected for creativity, passion, and Ocean's now classic knack for revealing the depths of his chaotic heart.

Song: "Thinkin 'Bout You"

While no beaches actually exist anywhere near Idaho, Ocean is clearly asserting his hustler status. Rather than lead the person on in a lie, he chose to let them know early what kind of a relationship he wanted: no strings attached.

Paralleling his play on words, Ocean is also representing his lost hope, connecting an unreal place to an impossible emotion.

Song: "Crack Rock"

A clever play on words brings the drug/love overtones of “Crack Rock” into Frank Ocean's random mental hiding places. The song reads two ways from the beginning: a massive dual-construction that either shares the pain of crack cocaine addition or how love mimics the highs and lows of narcotics.

Everyone feels alone at times, but the dark overtones of love lost in Ocean's work take the feeling to an extreme. Ocean finds himself in the middle of Arkansas, standing alone in a field and thinking about where he'd rather be. With only a little love left to savor, here matching the method of crack intake, he realizes that he is soon to be utterly alone and detached, fearing a withdrawal.

Left with only a rock of crack cocaine to burn, Frank muses on the misery and loneliness of life while using a glass crack pipe to smoke the rest. Adding to his creative monologue, Frank sneaks wordplay into his seemingly random choice of Arkansas. What is the capital of Arkansas? Little Rock.

Song: "Pink Matter"

Fresh off the stunning 12-minute Gorillaz collaboration “Do Ya Thing,” Andre adds a soulful flair to one of Ocean's strongest tracks. Dual contradictions—bad is good/good is bad—are typical of Andre's style, looping off of the main narrative and creating extended free verses.

Here, he realizes that his girl is dangerous, but he is addicted, finally hoping that she would just go away. Ever superstitious, Stacks knocks on wood, avoiding the jinx where fate would put her in heaven and Andre deep in the pits. Just to prove his skill at witty asides, Stacks makes an “Ocean” pun just a line later.

Song: "Bad Religion"

In “Bad Religion,” Frank starts an impromptu therapy session in the back of a cab, reflecting mainly on his feelings of love and lust. Finding himself involved too deeply for his own liking, Frank shuns “unrequited,” unconditional love, scared at the desire it drives in him: suicide. Recalling the infamous Jonestown group suicide and numerous other cult deaths, Ocean finds love to be similar to cyanide-laced punch, a ticket to death in his hands alone. A comparison to Promethazine, rap's favorite cough syrup, makes the illusion all too real.

Song: "Super Rich Kids"

A feature by Earl Sweatshirt still seems shocking, but the kid who “spent a year Ferris'in'” is definitely back to work. Supporting his partner in Odd Future, Earl takes on an uncharacteristically slow and lazy tone that works perfectly for the song. While still relying on dizzying, adrenaline-fueled lines to deliver knockouts, Earl adopts the swagger of a rich kid, complete with a laid back accent, a taste for the luxurious, and a flow that bleeds wealthy relaxation.

Reminiscent of his work on “Earl,” Thebe is back to mixing pills, committing crimes, and messing with civil society. As the metaphorical rich brat, Earl gnaws a potent mix of Xanax and wrecks an expensive car, all while keeping up a snotty, smart-ass attitude that marks the archetypal wealthy child. Seeking attention or thrills, Earl steals his father's Jaguar, proving that the rich stereotype is not too far off from Earl's normal antics with OFWGKTA.

Song: "Sweet Life"

“Sweet Life” is a portrayal of a life of luxury that parallels “Super Rich Kids.” In love with a girl from the right side of the tracks, Ocean becomes more and more disenfranchised with the rich life and its own subtle horrors.

Finding himself torn over a girl from the “black Beverly Hills” of affluent Ladera Heights, California, Ocean gives the otherworldly love a chance. The man-made “paradise” of sprawling green lawns and deep pools in the desert sickens the crooner, a rough juxtaposition of style that is off-putting. Drawing upon his music career, Ocean recognizes that an album is much like a relationship: the main track, the single, often is not the best choice. Instead, sometimes buried inside the tracklist is something better, but not necessarily with “single” status. Similarly, the girl valued one of Frank's singles, but not the whole album, her previous relationship a choice of simplicity rather than exploration. In the end, however, Ocean faces a Matrix-style choice, to take the blue pill and remain in false paradise or the red to Wonderland.

Song: "Forrest Gump"

“Forrest Gump” would be more difficult to decipher had it not been for Ocean's recent declaration of bisexuality. Frank uses the voice to explore more esoteric emotions without the burden of his own masculinity, thereby producing something more uniquely real.

Even with a reason, a song dedicated to a movie over 10 years old hardly seems normal. Ocean takes on the voice of Jenny, watching Forrest complete his great adventures across the world while secretly loving him. Like Forrest, Ocean's love is strong and capable of destroying the singer and the feeble love Frank feels is not enough to still the fears. Nervous of the outcome, Ocean backs into recollection of more deeds, only adding to the chaos inside.

It is easy to see the feminine side of the song and the fear of acceptance from a male lead as a direct product of his recent announcement, but this is more likely a continuation of his amorphous style.

Song: "Sierra Leone"

Ocean does not shy away from complex wordplay. On “Sierra Leone,” Frank compares the aftermath of Sierra Leone's bloody civil war and part tumultuous, part optimistic future to love, a radical fling into chaos that promises something better. Even with a bizarre basis of comparison, the song feels normal for Ocean, just another unique link in a chain of surprisingly deep songs.

In this line, Ocean is reflecting on the thought-to-action process of love and its new feel. His gut instinct, raw intuition, is to run back to his comfort zone of loose lovers and looser emotions. Yet, he wants to experience the new, to reach the end of the metaphorical civil war and try something altogether unfamiliar. While shy about his desires for a fling, he wants to hold true to his love-based mission, enjoying how odd the feeling is. He decides to soldier on, the Sierra Leone comparison walking beside him toward something exciting and unknown, a dream of stability and health.

Song: "Pyramids"

It is natural that Ocean's most intricate song produces one of his best lyrical explorations. “Pyramids” is a cross-pollination of ancient African history and the modern “black woman” of Frank's vision. Comparing Cleopatra, a stripper, and Egyptian heritage, the song forms a powerful vote of support for the oft-forgotten women mentioned only casually in the lyrics of Ocean and other rappers. “Pyramids” puts Ocean in the role of a pimp, disrespecting women by trade but secretly calling for them to regain their pride.

Recalling the infamous story of Cleopatra's extravagance, particularly before her supposed suicide, Ocean describes both the dress and appearance of a queen and a stripper. Cleopatra, though not actually buried within a pyramid, lived and worked by the structures, associating the pride of Egypt with the power of women. Similarly, strippers dance at the Luxor pyramid in Las Vegas, a facade of Egyptian heritage hiding the evil misogyny within. Cleopatra's heels leave her far ahead of her male counterparts, but the heels of the stripper leave her easily caught by her pursuer, a stark contrast to the ancient power of the Ptolemy queen. Ocean may not be the hero in this story, but his revival of the Nubian Queen movement of the De La Soul era is refreshing and unexpected, leading “Pyramids” into a realm well-received by women and hip-hop veterans alike.

Song: "End"

With mentions of Arkansas, Sierra Leone, and Idaho, Frank shows his talent for heavy-handed metaphors that really drive though. Yet, the simple and clear often best drives a point, drawing upon instinctual emotions to create a human response. “End” finishes with a recording of Ocean's “Voodoo” on top of sex in a car. The album started simply, bleeding into the distortion inside of Ocean's mind, and ends similarly. Like a wave, the crescendo collapses into a mess of dark thoughts and ideas, only to calm again before the next crest. When revealed as ideas floating around on a typical day, Frank's rambling lines makes total sense.

Despite his fear of love, his apprehension toward commitment, and his often overwhelming personality quirks, Ocean has a basic human desire for closeness. Hidden in his metaphors, Frank wants to express his concern for another, no matter the consequences, but still fears the outcome of such a literal act. What makes a perfect story of Ocean's feelings also expertly concludes the album, a brilliant rephrasing of every wish in a package that he can deliver to reality.