A Track By Track Analysis Of Every Song On Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’

Three years ago today, the enigmatic Frank Ocean released Blonde, one of the most important and complex albums of this decade. The album was released both physically, in magazines given away in pop-up stores around the country, and digitally on iTunes. The magazine, titled Boys Don’t Cry, is a companion piece to the album and features an alternate track listing for Blonde. However, despite the guide the magazine provides, the album often leaves us with more questions than answers.

One aspect of the album that’s been subject to much discussion is the title and its alternate spelling on the album cover. Fans have speculated that the use of “blond” on the album cover and “blonde” on the album listing is a reference to Frank’s sexual experiences with both men and women and the themes of duality between masculinity and femininity in his life; with “blond” being the masculine form of the word, and “blonde” being the feminine.

The word “blonde” holds two interpretations. The first is that children normally have blonde hair that darkens to brown as they get older. Blonde can therefore be seen as a reflection of Frank’s younger years, detailing his innocence and purity and loss thereof, making the album play out as more autobiographical than his previous works. Songs such as “Pink + White” and “Ivy” recall Ocean’s coming-of-age through the use of vocal pitching.

The second interpretation is the symbolism of blonde hair; blondes are stereotypically thoughtless and carefree. In a Tumblr post, Frank wrote that he drew inspiration from a picture of a blonde-haired child in the back of a car. Her “clear and calm” eyes echo the album’s theme of youthful carelessness.

In an interview with The New York Times, Ocean explained why he used different voices throughout the album:

Sometimes I felt like you weren’t hearing enough versions of me within a song, ’cause there was a lot of hyperactive thinking. Even though the pace of the album’s not frenetic, the pace of ideas being thrown out is…my point of view from one emotional state to another is a different point of view. Sometimes I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there’s always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?

Overall, the album’s concept explores falling in and out of love, with themes of self-love and hate, failed relationships, family, drugs, and depression. These themes intertwine to create a nuanced album that is Ocean’s most vulnerable and personal project yet. In an effort to summarize the entire album, Genius compiled every song biography written by its community to provide a road map of knowledge for listeners.

“Nikes” is a critique of the trappings of materialistic hedonism, with frequent reference to Nike sneakers, shiny gold/glitter, and fantasies of pleasure. The video version of this song features two competing voices while the album version doesn’t, which adds a sense of tension and conflict to the otherwise dreamy song. Frank released three different versions of this song—the original, the Apple Music version without the third verse featuring Japanese rapper KOHH, and a video version with Frank ad-libs.

This song and video are inspired by Heaven’s Gate—a cult in the 1990s which took an oath to commit suicide together. They all wore the same outfit and Nike Decades sneakers; Frank recreates their uniform in the video.

Frank sings in two distinct voices: one with a higher-pitch and one with a lower-pitch. At the beginning of the song, Frank says he has “two versions.” This could mean that there are two versions to the story, each told by a voice in a different pitch. The pitch may be higher in the first verse because it’s meant to sound synthetic, which calls back to the song’s theme of materialism. In the second verse, the tone shifts back to “reality,” as do the lyrics.

The song was first teased by Chance the Rapper, who was rumored to collaborate on the album, in a July 2015 tweet:

Frank Ocean reflects on his mistakes and explores a failed relationship on “Ivy.” Ocean and his partner seem to have grown apart. He was overwhelmed when his partner told him that they loved him. In hindsight, the relationship was “the start of nothing” because they eventually separated. Ocean does, however, affirm the idea that the relationship was worthwhile and a memory to keep.

The title may be a reference to how ivy strangles adjacent trees and isn’t good for their health. In the context of the song, it may be a reflection of their unhealthy relationship.

In an interview with The New York Times, Ocean explained why this song—like many others on the album—features various voices with different perspectives on the same story:

That was my version of collage or bricolage, how we experience memory sometimes, it’s not linear. We’re not telling the stories to ourselves, we know the story, we’re just seeing it in flashes overlaid.

The lyric “it started from nothing” has been much debated, as it sounds like “the start of nothing” is a better syllabic fit. The lyric is actually, “It started from nothing,” as verified in the album accompanying magazine, Boy’s Don’t Cry

Produced by Pharrell Williams and featuring uncredited backing vocals from Beyoncé, “Pink + White” details Ocean’s youth and someone close to him who passed away. He remembers this person by recalling the lessons they taught him.

The theme of mortality plays a key role in this song. In the second verse, he sings about a hurricane destroying everything in its path and its aftermath. The hurricane is likely a reference to Hurricane Katrina, which hit Louisiana while Ocean was a student at the University of New Orleans. It’s possible Frank’s loved one died during Katrina.

As heard in the song’s opening lines, the title is a reference to a sunset drive with Frank and his old friend. “Pink and white” describes the sky during the moment he is reminiscing on.

“Be Yourself” is a voice message from Rosie Watson, the mother of one of Frank’s childhood friends. When Blonde was released, many fans assumed the voicemail was left by Frank’s mom due to the closing line, “this is mom, call me, bye.” This is not the case, and was confirmed by Frank’s brother Ryan via Twitter:

This track is similar to “Not Just Money” from Frank’s previous album, channel ORANGE, where Rosie gives Frank some similarly stern advice about how there’s more to life than just money.

On “Solo,” Frank touches on various aspects of being alone, such as self-love or waiting for a call from your lover. The song’s title has two interpretations. Throughout the song, Frank sings about how he is alone, or solo, but through the chorus Frank explains that he’s “so low” emotionally and that he needs to “get high.”

James Blake co-produced the song and Jazmine Sullivan (who contributed vocals to several songs on Endless) adds additional vocals.

This song finds Frank singing about random thoughts from sex to drugs, and acts as a sort of interlude between tracks, slightly altering the mood of the album in the transition between “Solo” and “Self Control.” Frank mentions summer, nighttime, and sex throughout the song. Summer is a recurring theme in Ocean’s work.

Initially, Kendrick Lamar was rumored to be the voice behind the track’s ad-libs, but that was dispelled with the release of the official liner notes.

“Self Control” is a slow ballad where Frank describes a relationship that is slowly falling apart. Throughout the song, Frank hints the reason their relationship crumbled was because the other person was too immature. The intro features the high-pitched vocal effect Frank uses throughout the album. The squeaky voice suggests Frank is reminiscing about events that happened when he was younger.

In an interview with The New York Times, Frank explained his intent with the song:

That was written about someone who I was actually in a relationship with, who wasn’t an unrequited situation…It was mutual, it was just we couldn’t really relate. We weren’t really on the same wavelength.

Austin Feinstein of indie band Slow Hollows and Yung Lean sing the choruses. Austin sings the first alone, with Yung Lean joining him on the second.

“Good Guy” touches on ideas of loneliness and emptiness experienced from fruitless encounters. The track outlines a story of Frank going out on a blind date with a guy who he met through a mutual friend.

On the date, Frank discovers his partner’s libertine character and realizes the intimacy shared between them is meaningless, when Frank was likely hoping for something more. Ocean’s vocals are accompanied only by a piano; the rawness of the track allows Frank’s emotions to stand front and center.

In an April 2019 cover story for Gayletter Magazine, Frank revealed that the gay bar he’s referencing in this song is Boxers, a small chain of LGBT sports bars with locations in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea neighborhoods.

The outro of the song briefly touches on queerness and how difficult and uncomfortable it can be to come out to people and to fit in with straight friends, a thoughtful look at two opposing facets of modern masculinity.

“Nights” starts with the story of one of Ocean’s previous relationships, detailing the highs and lows they both faced while dating. During the second half of the song, Ocean sings about the challenges he faced while living in Houston after relocating from New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. The song’s title is taken from the hook, in which Ocean raps about living a life connected by rough nights.

The song’s structure is divided into two sides; the first part provides an upbeat, instrumental-driven melody. In the second half, the music turns somber and slow, serving as a parallel to a crash after a drug high. The change in tempo is used to signify the halfway point of the album, playing further into the idea of duality established throughout the album. Like cars and colors—duality is a recurring motif on Blonde and harkens back to the “two versions” line on “Nikes.”

An interlude reprising the themes from the earlier track of the same name, “Solo (Reprise)” is performed by André 3000 of OutKast. Both “Solo” tracks have similar instrumentation (an organ on “Solo” and a piano on the reprise) and use some of the same chords. Additionally, both songs feature a single vocalist/rapper and more or less a single instrument, fitting with the idea of a “solo.”

Many fans assumed Andre’s lines about ghostwriting were a shot at Drake.

After 20 years in, I’m so naïve I was under the impression
That everyone wrote they own verses
It’s comin' back different and, yeah, that shit hurts me

However, in an interview with Sway In The Morning, Andre’s longtime collaborator CeeLo Green claimed Andre told him his verse was written two years before its release—well before Drake faced ghostwriting accusations.

“Pretty Sweet” is one of the bolder moments on Blonde, with an initially unsettling change of pace where Frank is singing wildly over a chaotic mixture of strings and synthesizers. The sonic experimentation sets the tone for the lyrics, which seem to purposely lack structure and further accentuate the chaotic and asymmetric flow of the song. The CD version of this track that came with the Boys Don’t Cry magazine features a different version of this song, with different lyrics.

“Facebook Story” is a skit where real and digital life meet but cannot be distinguished from each other. French producer SebastiAn recalls how his relationship fell apart over accusations of infidelity over Facebook. It is the second skit on Blonde, following the album’s fourth track and first skit “Be Yourself”.

In an interview with Pitchfork, SebastiAn talked about the song:

Yes, it’s me and it’s a true story. We were just chatting about life and relationships in general. I discovered that Frank was recording the conversations sometimes when something seemed interesting to him, but I didn’t know when and why exactly. We were just having discussions like anyone else, but he suddenly paid attention at this story. He maybe chose that one because this kind of story reveals something about our time. He maybe has another point of view.

This song also samples Buddy Ross’s instrumental beat “runnin around” throughout the track.

“Close To You” samples Stevie Wonder’s cover of “Close To You” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Frank interpolates the vocal melody, but switches up the lyrics.

Ocean explained why he kept coming back to this Stevie Wonder song in an interview with GQ in 2019:

With ‘Close to You,’ it was a similar thing, only without the nostalgia. I was living in a hotel, and I remember listening to it and being really nailed to the floor by Stevie Wonder’s interpretation of it. That version moved into my favorite-songs-of-all-time list, right there with Prince’s ‘When You Were Mine.’ I don’t know what creates that feeling of ‘I have to sing this song.’

The car on “White Ferrari” symbolizes the purity and innocence of a relationship that are now remembered as being merely a “good time.” The sincerity of their love is represented by the Ferrari—something that is both rare, desirable, extremely valuable, and precious. Cars are a recurring theme in all of Ocean’s work.

“Seigfried” could be described as a metaphysical break-up song. Based on the lyric “a speckled face,” the song may be about male model Willy Cartier, who’s rumored to have had a brief affair with Ocean. The hero Siegfried of Norse mythology is often depicted as a handsome man with long, flowing hair, much like Cartier.

On the first verse, Frank begins by addressing a lover in a failed romance and goes to reflect on his own life. His reflections become increasingly more penetrating, moving from wondering about life choices to thoughts about the nature of his own mind and God. The song then seems to move back into a consideration of lost love and ends with a declaration, “I’d do anything for you.”

The title appears to be a spelling variation on the Germanic name Siegfried, which is composed of the roots sig, meaning victory, and frithu, meaning peace. The name “Siegfried” has several cultural resonances Frank may be channeling:

1. Siegfried is a warrior in Norse mythology. In folklore, Siegfried slays the dragon Fafnir and wins the princess Brünnhilde. He is considered an archetypal figure of bravery. Siegfried was popularized through the operas of Richard Wagner (1813-1883), specifically his four-part work Der Ring des Nibelungen.

2. The song may also make reference to Siegfried Sassoon; a British war poet who had a number of affairs and encounters with men and women, echoing Frank’s own experiences. Siegfried Sassoon was a soldier—possibly the reason Frank repeatedly mentions being or not being brave. Siegfried also had a close friend by the name of Wilfred Owen. Wilfred had fallen madly in love with Siegfried and wrote many love letters to him. Frank may be relating himself and the situation he describes in the song to Wilfred Owen.

3. Siegfried is a character from the * Soulcalibur* series. Ocean named a song from his nostalgia, ULTRA mixtape after the game.

On the bridge, Frank borrows lyrics from Elliot Smith’s “A Fond Farewell,” a song about overcoming addiction and reforming one’s character. “Seigfried” is about Frank’s own reformation.

On “Godspeed,” Frank describes him leaving a lover, but in a respectful way. The title is an exclamation used to give good fortune to someone starting a journey.

The track features many religious overtones, including various references to the bible sung over a church-style organ and extensive use of the “plagal cadence.” Additionally, the outro features gospel singer Kim Burrell.

“Godspeed” shares its title with a screenplay Frank published in his Boys Don’t Cry publication:

I wrote a story in the middle – it’s called ‘Godspeed’. It’s basically a reimagined part of my boyhood. Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years. It’s surprisingly my favourite part of my life so far. Surprising, to me, because the current phase is what I was asking the cosmos for when I was a kid. Maybe that part had it’s rough stretches too, but in my rearview mirror it’s getting small enough to convince myself it was all good. And really though… It’s still all good.

“Futura Free” is about having the freedom to move forward and a celebration of Frank’s newfound independence.The song is divided into two sections, broken by a silent interlude. The first finds Frank reflecting on his life and accomplishments in a stream of consciousness style. He rambles about fame, religion, and sexuality while referencing popular icons who died at a young age such as 2Pac and Selena.

The second half is an old interview clip conducted by Frank’s younger brother Ryan Breaux, featuring Illegal Civilization members: Mikey Alfred, Sage Elsesser, and Na-kel Smith.

The title is a reference to the popular sans-serif font, Futura. This was also Stanley Kubrick’s favorite typeface, who used it in the trailers and promotional posters for some of his most popular films, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. Frank is known for being a huge Kubrick fan.

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Editor’s Note—Thank you to all the amazing Genius community members who contributed to writing the song bios, answering questions, and annotations on this album, including but not limited to: @goodkidkevcity @s_connoisseur @LouieBaharomIX @jeffreywardman @NatMcMahan @charlesverheggen @Jordan_RR @JayKauz @damkerch @VloneZone @boxgapsrus @MrChristensen @kidcwithaperiod @brndnshv @nalarcon @bbuci @Camermck @zfunk @tomsarram @duncanpree @Zeniths @ezwar @pastelgore @FerDeRuijter @kanyesterday @centnerstage