Blonde
Released
Frank Ocean filmed himself literally woodshedding (building a spiral staircase) in his visual album, Endless. Released a day later, Blonde revealed exactly what honing his musicianship since 2012’s Channel Orange sounded like. Loss, longing, pansexuality and, sonically, an atmospheric melancholia dominate songs like “Nikes,” “White Ferrari” and “Self Control.” Recorded at Electric Lady and Abbey Road — with specific callbacks to The Beatles, Brian Wilson and Stevie Wonder — Blonde cemented Frank Ocean’s spot as a master of the modern musical moment.