79. Frank Ocean, "Blond"
Never has my personal take on an artist shifted so quickly. You may remember that when we last saw Frank Ocean ( #148, Channel Orange ), I said "it just didn't do much for me." Either I changed or this album represented a massive leap forward or something, because, reader, this is some incredible music. It's way, way outside my usual wheelhouse and so it took me some time to warm up to and I feel like I still haven't absorbed it completely. I'm going to keep returning to it because there is a lot here. Trying to describe what kind of music this is would be like trying to ask a lake what kind of water it is. But I'll say a few words anyway. There are elements of dream pop and R&B and electro-pop and gospel and hip hop and soul and I don't, just everything . This is an album that borrows a lyric from Elliott Smith ("fond farewell to a friend," in "Siegfried") and part of a Beatles melody ("Here, There, and Everywhere...