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10.0
44056
10.0 |
Pretty Much Amazing
Channel Orange’s scale and scope are impressive to behold. It spans time and distance – from Ancient Egypt to the modern Las Vegas strip (on “Pyramids”), from Ladera Heights (the “black Beverly Hills”) to the temples of India – and for all of its 55 minutes, it’s brilliant
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10.0
44073
10.0 |
Daily Telegraph
Channel Orange is as dazzling as it is baffling, rarely staying still long enough to get a grip on
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10.0
44053
10.0 |
The Guardian
In a formulaic era, his production is impressively idiosyncratic, heavy on hazy electronics and cavernous, dubby reverb, and packed with weird touches: the melodies never quite pan out as you expect them to, while the backing shifts and changes unpredicatably
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10.0
44092
10.0 |
The Arts Desk
Throughout, Ocean and his producers offer an inventive but relatively understated take on contemporary R&B - no mean feat for an album whose centrepiece is a 10-minute shape-shifter called "Pyramids"
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10.0
44153
10.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
Whether he’s being sarcastic or vulnerable, publicly hedging or lyrically baring it all, his songwriting speaks to the humanity in us all
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10.0
44224
10.0 |
State
It’s a masterful, dynamic and evocative collection of conversations between his inner-self and the listener
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10.0
44294
10.0 |
The Irish Times
It’s a record that takes your breath away – finally, here’s someone with the gumption to take urban music to new and fascinating heights. A brilliant, show-stealing, game-changing affair
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10.0
44392
10.0 |
A.V. Club
Channel Orange is so arrestingly smooth that all of its unusually shaped pieces fit together as a seamless whole
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10.0
44736
10.0 |
The Fly
In throwing his emotional locker wide open, Frank Ocean has made a tender, engrossing classic
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9.5
44054
9.5 |
Pitchfork
While Channel Orange is stuffed with one-of-a-kind details and characters, its overall scope is grand, as is Ocean's
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9.4
44191
9.4 |
The AU Review
One of those albums you can listen to from start to finish without ever getting bored or frustrated, Channel Orange will go down as one of the best R&B releases of this decade, if not the best
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9.1
44194
9.1 |
Beats Per Minute
Frank’s strengths are his versatile voice, the breadth of his songwriting capabilities, the way he mixes and matches old aesthetics and ends up with strange new combinations
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9.0
44099
9.0 |
All Music
As easy as it is to listen to Ocean's voice in long stretches - he's casually expressive - the number of deep ruminations over slow tempos requires some patience
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9.0
44081
9.0 |
Spin
As a singer, Ocean performs like he has all the time in the world and no idea what to do with it. Some might hear this as numbness, but on channel ORANGE, it comes across as exceptional wisdom and repose
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9.0
44074
9.0 |
Clash
Channel Orange demands to be listened to in a single sitting, its tracks interwoven by the ambient noise of middle America – video games, TV commercials, aeroplanes and car doors
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9.0
44076
9.0 |
musicOMH
As Channel Ocean reaches its end, every emotion associated with it can be traced back to one: fulfilment. And that's how it leaves you – immensely fulfilled
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9.0
44078
9.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
These songs don’t sound observed or imagined; they sound lived, and lived-with. That’s the key to Channel Orange; every song breathes like an individual fragment of Ocean’s personality and past, coaxed and caressed into life by his stunning voice and considered songwriting
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9.0
44401
9.0 |
The Digital Fix
What perhaps is most striking about this album (and what most people instantly lost sight of) is Ocean’s stunning capability as a storyteller
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9.0
44296
9.0 |
Under The Radar
It stands tall as the best R&B album in a long while, if not the best album in a long while
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9.0
44342
9.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Beyond genre lines, racial lines, sexuality lines, any lines you can think of, it's that all-too-rare gem: a universal story you'll come back to long after the hype's been and gone
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9.0
44594
9.0 |
Tone Deaf
An astounding feat. Ocean’s first full-length offering is truly something special
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9.0
44109
9.0 |
Slant Magazine
Channel Orange is so textured, complex, and mature that Ocean's recent coming out feels like a footnote, rather than the entire story. It's a revelation that only further colors the tales of longing and disappointment found on this impressive album
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9.0
44646
9.0 |
AU Review
A staggering album from a staggering talent
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8.7
44240
8.7 |
Paste Magazine
A very beautiful album about not-so-beautiful people
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8.0
44100
8.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
With Channel Orange Frank Ocean has proven himself as one of the most significant artists in popular music today; his next effort will definitely have the potential to be a genre classic
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8.0
44103
8.0 |
PopMatters
While it may hard to both live up to hype and craft something distinct in a young career already brimming with excellent releases, channel ORANGE finds Frank Ocean rising to the challenge with a class unlike anyone in music these days
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8.0
44105
8.0 |
The Observer
If the album isn't the break-out commercial success his label is praying for, let's hope it's because Ocean has stayed true to his creative vision and made an expansive, slow-burning classic that repays patience and close attention, and not for any other reason
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8.0
44079
8.0 |
Rolling Stone
There are echoes of soul forbears in Ocean's music – Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Prince – but his feel for romantic tragedy, unfurling in slow-boiling ballads, links him to an older tradition. He is a torch singer
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8.0
44086
8.0 |
Independent on Sunday
The dominant sound of Channel Orange is one of "quiet storm" slow jams laid over lo-fi, broken-speaker beats. But it's far from samey
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8.0
44055
8.0 |
BBC
There are moments of assured clarity, juxtaposed with flashes of childlike shyness. What remains is a solid collection of pop-soul renderings through which Ocean tries to find himself. We get to watch his maturation, growing pains and all
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8.0
44625
8.0 |
Mojo
R&B prodigy takes us on an epic journey into the self. Print edition only
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8.0
44576
8.0 |
Q
While Ocean's artistic ambition is impressive, it's his haunting candour that really casts a spell. Print edition only
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8.0
45419
8.0 |
Uncut
Sumptuous and sprawling. Print edition only
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7.5
46308
7.5 |
hhv.de mag
With Thinkin‘ Bout You the record has a track that’s plain beautiful and maybe even timeless. Channel Orange as a whole doesn’t achieve that timelessness – three or maybe four tracks are just too weak for that
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7.0
44824
7.0 |
No Ripcord
It’s an exhausting, exhilarating tour de force that’s difficult to surpass and the album undoubtedly loses some steam after the zenith of Pyramids. Actually, it’s fair to say that the last third or so of Channel ORANGE is a little on the dull side
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