That’s a pretty fast five years flew by.
When it was hell on earth and when the city was on fire, Frank Ocean’s Blonde—released on this date in 2016—held us together for half a decade of pandemics, political turmoil, and poolside convos turned failed romances. But if you spun “Self Control” at your most emotionally vulnerable state, “held together” may not be the right terminology.
Blonde has been the album we turn to when we need a good cry, when we’re searching for a moment of reflection, and when the only thing we desire is a French producer to remind us of the dangers of social media. There’s a reason it still floats on and off of the Billboard 200 chart five years later (most recently at No. 173 this week), has since been certified platinum by the RIAA, and has surfaced on all-time album lists while its legacy is still in its infancy. To many, it’s already a classic.
A body of work that’s considered a classic, and feels perfectly whole, has some songs that hit just as deep as they did when you first saw Frank place his hand over his eyes. So here we are today doing the impossible: ranking the songs on Blonde from worst (for the record, none of these are bad) to best.
There will be mountains we won’t move, but we sure as hell are going to try with this one.
17. Facebook Story
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It’s not easy being a skit about the dangers of social media when you’re being ranked among some of the prettiest love songs in creation. That’s why “Facebook Story” sits at the bottom of our list, although we can’t help but feel for Sebastian and hope his then-partner is past their influencer phase.
16. Be Yourself
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No, this isn’t Frank’s Mom Katonya Breaux wagging her finger, but rather a mother of a childhood friend. Regardless, there’s some memorable lessons about being “sluggish, lazy, stupid, and unconcerned,” which are still hard to not smile at, and its placement right before “Solo” gives it a bit of an ironic edge.
15. Pretty Sweet
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“Pretty Sweet” is the most abrupt moment on the album, sandwiched between two minute-long tracks. It almost feels like that moment in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory where Gene Wilder takes the kids into that chocolate river tunnel. It’s not intended to sit well with the listener initially, eventually transitioning into a Green Hill Zone moment of sorts, but even the most beautiful things (as Blonde proves throughout) could always use some discomfort.
14. Futura Free
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A closer of all closers, “Futura Free” is a reminder that Frank is still a boy from New Orleans who took a chance on his dreams. For fans listening, it serves as a thank you for being by his side during the four-year wait from Channel Orange to Endless, as Frank takes a few extra moments to dish 2Pac conspiracies. “Futura Free” is a recluse’s view on fame, and closes off with interviews with those closest to Frank, reminding us that regardless of how long he takes to perfect his craft, he’s still just a guy, not a God.
13. Good Guy
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As the shortest song on Blonde, “Good Guy” tells the story of a disappointing date, and is convincing enough to give listeners an extra seat at the bar Frank heads to. It’s simple and sweet, with some vocal distortion to make it feel a bit more intimate (in the best of ways) when following the immersive “Self Control.”
12. Solo (Reprise)
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It can’t be a Frank album without André 3000, who undoubtedly deserved his own space outside of “Solo” to shine on Blonde. And when Frank gave him just that in a reprise, he had his fun blending “solo” and “so low” as Frank does later in this list on the actual “Solo” (“inhale” and “in hell”) it’s hard to place 3 Stacks witty “geromino”-declaring verse above most of Blonde, but he really takes this one so high.
11. Close To You
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On paper, there are some things that sound off-putting about “Close To You.” For one, it’s a cover of a cover, where he flips Stevie Wonder’s talkbox rendition of The Carpenter’s classic “I Long To Be Close To You.” And it’s barely longer than a minute. But after hearing his live mashup of this track with the Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye,” and digging into the eras that this song had to travel to get to the place Frank brought it to, it’s hard not to be appreciative of his take. “I let my mind run underneath warm jets” alone gives this one the lyrical prowess to go toe-to-toe with any minute-long connecting track out there.
10. Skyline To
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Channeling the same childhood lullaby feelings that “Solo” instilled in listeners later in this list, “Skyline To” questions the length of summer, as we wish this one was just a bit longer itself. It’s truly stunning the way Frank sings of time moving too fast and the process of aging, before stretching his lines in the second verse to make every moment count.
9. Seigfried
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As a fond farewell to a friend, “Seigfried” serves its purpose. The song is Frank’s pledge to seemingly move on to a new life, and he does so with intergalactic sonics keeping him afloat throughout. Not to mention the thought-dreaming spoken word outro, alongside a promise to do anything for his lover in the dark, makes “Seigfried” cut so deep all these years later.
8. White Ferrari
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After five years, we’ve become very familiar with “White Ferrari.” But that doesn’t mean Frank’s atmospheric vocal harmonies and pleas of “tattooed eyelids on a facelift” don’t still have the pull they once had on us. As part of the deal, Frank’s backing vocal runs, likely more-so than any infliction on this record, make his pain feel absolutely devastating. And just as in much of this album, he’s able to draw upon that pain to create a stingy acoustic ballad, worthy of storing in our memory’s garage forever.
7. Godspeed
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An ode to moving on and doing so with grace and love, the James Blake-penned “Godspeed” is a testament to Frank’s newfound maturity, both musically and emotionally. Borrowing lines from Yung Lean and Kim Burrell, Frank wishes his ex-lover well, with vocal textures that embed themselves in your soul. It’s almost as if he Googled, “What does moving on feel like deep inside,” took his findings to some secret lab, and converted that feeling to a sound. Nobody has ever made closure feel as warm as it does here.
6. Nikes
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As a lead single and as an album opener, there’s nothing more ambitious than pitching your vocals up several decibels and waiting a full three minutes before introducing fans to some semblance of familiarity in your voice. But that’s how Frank operates. And he opened Blonde with an Air Force One-laced kick to the face in “Nikes,” from the ASAP Yams shoutout to the promises to “see the future first.” Little did he know, he was already there.
5. Pink + White
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Nobody knows how to make immortality, natural disasters, and distant memories sound as bright and hopeful as Frank. “Pink + White” touches on all three by following the lessons Frank learned from a loved one, as the New Orleans native uses imagery from Hurricane Katrina to paint a picture of things only getting better from there. As the only song produced by Pharrell—which he really does tastefully, without it feeling too much like a Skateboard P record on a Frank album—and the only cut to feature backing harmonies from Queen Bey herself, the track is one of the few optimistic-sounding songs on Blonde, yet manages to hold its own against some of the album’s dangerously jarring tracks. It’s difficult to not feel the love Frank was showed on “Pink + White.”
4. Ivy
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Frank may have thought he was dreaming, but it was hard not to think you were dreaming the first time you ran through “Ivy,” and pretty much every time after. Frank perfectly articulates the complex feeling of reflecting on a failed relationship throughout “Ivy.” It’s tough to shake the sparks of joy that you once felt at the start of a relationship as you look back, even when you now know it was quite literally “the start of nothing.” Frank’s pen goes deep on this crash-and-burn love song, painting a picture of growing apart from the person you’re with. And thanks to guitars and distorted vocals that encapsulate the feeling of a young love, “Ivy” is one of this era’s most important love songs about a love that never truly was.
3. Self Control
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Sounds can make us cry. That’s undeniable. And the sounds on “Self Control”—even after five years of breakups, life mishaps, and using the heart-wrenching ballad as a band-aid though it all—still make us do just that. Pretending that you’ve moved on and trying to keep it cool can often be the biggest gut-punch in a split, yet Frank finds a way to make his pain sound heavenly. With a choir-like breakdown, and a few simple strums along the way, the only thing more forceful than listening to “Self Control” with earbuds in is hearing Frank sing it live, which may be the closest anyone can get to actually ascending.
2. Nights
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You’ll have to keep at least six discs in the changer to get the optimum experience, but it’s hard to not enjoy the beat switch that can still be felt with every new year. “Nights” makes it easy to feel like the main character on daily tasks, as you work through your best and worst nights, even after a half-decade on loop. But it’s more than just a high-energy theme song on one of the most emotionally reparative albums in recent memory. It’s also the most multi-faceted. Beyond feeling almost like two entirely different songs, “Nights” splits the album into a perfect two, proving itself as the unshatterable backbone to Blonde.
1. Solo
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The thing about “Solo” is that it’s instantaneous. There’s no instrumental intro or moment of silence to guide listeners into the lullaby Frank breaks into. Nope. He simply asks you to hand him a towel as he dirty dances by himself, and you just have to obey. The song is cathartic, from the dreamy and understated organs that add more life to Frank’s impassioned vocal delivery, to the ominous whistle that breaks through every few bars, to one of the most masterfully written choruses of the last decade. As Frank stares at the constellations and flexes his songwriting abilities by swapping “inhale” and “in hell,” he propels you right to the stars he’s glaring at. Being alone never felt so crushing, and being crushed never felt so good.
