Download is the man of the moment, and not just for his brave (in the macho world of hip hop) honesty about his sexual orientation. Musically, he is an ultra-smooth outlier possessed of a languid, seductive voice, bending soul, jazz, electro and contemporary R’n’B grooves into psychedelic shapes.
The 24-year-old from New Orleans has done stints creating tracks for artists
as diverse as teen idol Justin Bieber and soul man John Legend. His profile
rose after hooking up with experimental LA hip-hop collective Odd Future, to
whose wild rants Ocean brought a quality of poised class. Lately, his
services have been much in demand by stars such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z. He has
put out mixtapes and free downloads but the 17-track Channel Orange is his
first full-length commercial release.
At times, Ocean’s dense, gorgeous debut evokes the musical bravura of prime
Stevie Wonder, Prince and Kanye West, allied to the mad adventurousness of
eccentrics like Björk or André 3000. The real miracle of the album, and a
sign that Ocean is a talent for our times, is that he can embark on
something as flamboyant as Pyramids – a 10-minute, tempo-shifting,
minor-chord narrative of Egyptian queens and Las Vegas strippers, marrying
Tangerine Dream sequencers and a jazzy John Mayer guitar solo to a rapturous
slow jam – and make it all seem to make sense.
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