#79 Blonde by Frank Ocean

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

2025 Album Rank

79

Total Points

797

Year Released

2016

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

1

Weeks at #1

1

RIAA Sales Certification

1,000,000 (Platinum)

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Blonde Album Details

Blonde is Frank Ocean's genre-defying second studio album, released independently on August 20, 2016, just days after his visual album project Endless. The album blends R&B, soul, avant-garde pop, and ambient influences into a deeply introspective and personal work. Sparse arrangements, unconventional song structures, and pitch-shifted vocals give the record an ethereal, dreamlike quality. Lyrically, Ocean reflects on love, heartbreak, identity, sexuality, and the passage of time, offering both intimate storytelling and abstract imagery.

Featuring contributions from artists like André 3000, Beyoncé, James Blake, and Kanye West, along with uncredited appearances from others. Blonde rejects mainstream pop formulas in favor of emotional nuance and experimental soundscapes. The album was released without a traditional single and with minimal promotion, yet it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and has since been hailed as one of the most influential albums of the 2010s.

Interesting Facts About Blonde

• The title was originally stylized as Blond on the cover art, with "Blonde" appearing in other promotional materials, possibly referencing masculine and feminine grammatical forms in French.
• Many tracks, including Nikes and Ivy, feature pitch-shifted vocals to convey different emotional perspectives or to blur gender identity in the storytelling.
• Self Control includes background vocals from Austin Feinstein and Yung Lean, creating one of the album's most emotional climaxes.
• The interlude Be Yourself features a voicemail from the mother of one of Ocean's childhood friends, advising against drug use.
• Solo contains a double meaning in its title, referring both to being alone and to psychedelic experiences, reinforced by wordplay throughout the lyrics.
• André 3000's rapid-fire verse on Solo (Reprise) was recorded in one take and is one of the album's few moments of intense energy.
• The album includes production and writing input from a wide range of collaborators, including Pharrell Williams, Om'Mas Keith, and Rostam Batmanglij.
• Ocean released the album just after fulfilling his Def Jam contract with Endless, allowing him to own the rights to Blonde outright.
• The guitar-driven ballad White Ferrari contains interpolations of The Beatles' Here, There and Everywhere.

Blonde Tracklist

1. Nikes
2. Ivy
3. Pink + White
4. Be Yourself
5. Solo
6. Skyline To
7. Self Control
8. Good Guy
9. Nights
10. Solo (Reprise)
11. Pretty Sweet
12. Facebook Story
13. Close to You
14. White Ferrari
15. Seigfried
16. Godspeed
17. Futura Free

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