It's a debate as old as time (or at least 2016): Channel Orange or Blonde? As Frank Ocean's only two studio albums of his career, they are often pitted against one another as folks argue over which body of work ultimately reigns superior over the other. While Channel Orange served as his debut, fans had to wait four long years for Blonde, which made its final arrival much sweeter than it might have been otherwise. Although both are widely regarded as high quality bodies of work, most fans typically prefer one over the other, even if only by a little.
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Among those fans are the woman who birthed the artist: Frank's mother, Katonya. On Wednesday, Katonya was asked by poet and writer, AJ Addae, during an interview over Instagram live which of her son's two albums she prefers more. Like so many of Frank's most diehard supporters, Katonya was able to finally settle on one, but it wasn't without some major hesitation and internal debate.
"Blonde. No wait. They were both so good, this is crazy," Katonya noted, struggling to choose. "But I will probably say Blonde. I love 'Pink + White.' OK, Blonde."
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"Why Blonde?" AJ pressed. Katonya went on to name all the songs she loves off Blonde in response. "Because I love 'Pink + White' and Beyoncé's on 'Pink + White,'" she explained. "And I love 'Nights,' oh my god...and oh 'White Ferrari!'"
AJ tweeted that she'll be transcribing the full interview and printing it in the May issue of her monthly newsletter, which is dropping in a few days. You can go to the link in her bio to subscribe and be notified when the newsletter is released.
Frank Ocean Album Sales Spike For No Reason
Frank Ocean's album sales for "Blonde" and "Channel Orange" increased by about 25% each last week.
We must be getting to that time in quarantine when everybody is in their feelings because, for no good reason, Frank Ocean saw two of his albums have tremendous sales weeks.
The reclusive singer re-emerged with acoustic versions of two previously-previewed singles "Dear April" and "Cayendo" and it appears as though the interest surrounding those two releases carried over to his past work.
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Frank Ocean hasn't released a full-length body of work in years. That wouldn't fly for most artists. However, Frank is in a league of his own. Much like Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Beyoncé, and others, he can strategically choose whenever he wants to drop and it'll always be a hit with the fans. Either his following has started to miss him dearly, the new singles reminded them of what used to be, or it's just been a rough week in quarantine for everybody. Whichever option applies the most, it has been reported that sales figures for Blonde and Channel Orange both jumped tremendously in the last week.
According to Chart Data, Blonde was up 25.2% in the United States while Channel Orange was up 26.5%. Usually, an artist will see this sort of jump when they announce a new project. Frank Ocean doesn't even need to do that. He just needs people to get sad.
Are you bumping Blonde and Channel Orange this week?