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The verdict is in – Frank Ocean’s Blonde according to Twitter

Kanye West, James Blake and Ocean's little brother share their thoughts on the new drop

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“Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years,” Frank writes in the opening letter of Boys Don’t Cry.

Well, we never thought this day would come. After four years of relative silence, we’ve been inundated with Frank. A visual album called Endless, the long-awaited album Blonde, and the 300+ page zine Boys Don’t Cry. We’ve well and truly melted. Bey, Andre 3000, James Blake and Frank’s own mother make appearances as well. As a collective, Blonde is lucid. It’s hazy. It’s questioning and searching. It’s Frank’s stream of consciousness, and it’s a masterpiece. “Thank you all,” he wrote. “Especially those of you who never let me forget I had to finish. Which is basically everyone of ya’ll. Haha. Love you.”

Check out Twitter’s verdict on the releases below, including the thoughts of Yeezy, James Blake, and his younger bro Ryan. Prepare youselves. Something tells us the Blonde effect has just begun.


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01.

Our fears will never end. Either way, dropping 2 albums, 2 videos and the Boys Don’t Cry zine in one weekend is astonishing.


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02.

“Ivy”, the second track on the album, is impressive. The guitar riffs are are soothing, yet heartbreaking at the same time. It’s a strange feeling. “It’s quite alright to hate me now,” he says. “When we both know that deep down / The feeling still deep down is good.”


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03.

A reminder that Andre 3000’s role in “Solo (Reprise)” is perhaps one of the most impressive things we’ve seen in a while. We need more.


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04.

Not all reviews of the album have been positive, though.


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05.

James Blake’s approval of “Nikes” mirrors Twitter’s sentiments. Blake has played a pivotal role in the creation of Endless and Blonde, being credited by Ocean on the album.


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06.

Ocean’s little brother had to chime on, of course. Ryan Breaux actually features on “Futura Free”.


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07.

“Be Yourself” is a surprising gem in Blonde, featuring an unexpected call from Mother Ocean. It’s essentially 90 seconds of a mother telling a son not to take drugs and drink booze. The maternal instinct is rather warming. But, yes, stoners everywhere are checking themselves.


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08.

Listening to ‘Self Control’ will have you drowning in feels and reaching for the tissues. Period. Pay close attention to the outro, when Ocean croons “I, I, I know you gotta leave, leave, leave”. Shivers.


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09.

And I’ll just leave this one here as a reminder that insightful comments like this still do exist in 2016. People still discussing Ocean’s sexuality like it’s a matter of importance? Non-heterosexual identities contested in correlation to their music? Reductive? SMH.


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010.

We all know that Yeezy’s opinion is final. Kanye also contributed to the Boys Don’t Cry zine with a surprisingly deep poem entitled “The McDonald’s Man”. “McDonalds Man”, he writes, “McDonalds, damn / Them french fries look good tho / I knew the Diet Coke was jealous of the fries / I knew the McNuggets was jealous of the fries / Even the McRib was jealous of the fries / I could see it through his artificial meat eyes / And he only be there some of the time / Everybody was jealous of them french fries / Except for that one special guy / That smooth apple pie”. Okay, so now we really need to check out this glorious zine.