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| Channel Orange | ||||
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| Released | July 10, 2012 | |||
| Recorded | 2011–2012 | |||
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| Length | 62:18 | |||
| Label | Def Jam | |||
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| Frank Ocean chronology | ||||
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Channel Orange is the debut studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter Frank Ocean. It was released on July 10, 2012, by Def Jam Recordings. After releasing his mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra the previous year, Ocean began writing new songs with Malay, a producer and songwriter who then assisted him with recording Channel Orange at EastWest Studios in Hollywood. Rather than rely on samples as he had with his mixtape, Ocean wanted to approach sound and song structure differently on the album. Other producers who worked on the album included Om'Mas Keith and Pharrell Williams. Its recording also featured guest appearances from Odd Future rappers Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator, vocalist/songwriter André 3000, and guitarist John Mayer.
Noted by writers as musically unconventional, Channel Orange draws on electro-funk, pop-soul, jazz-funk, and psychedelic styles, as well as nonmusical sounds such as film dialogue and ambient noise that function as interludes. Vocally, Ocean uses a free-form flow as well as alternating falsetto and tenor registers throughout the album. His songwriting explores themes of unrequited love, decadence, social class, and drugs through the use of surrealistic imagery, conversational devices, and descriptive narratives depicting dark characters. He titled the album as a reference to the neurological phenomenon grapheme–color synesthesia, through which he had perceived the color orange during the summer he first fell in love.
To prevent Channel Orange from leaking onto the Internet, Ocean and Def Jam released the album digitally one week earlier than its publicly announced date. It was promoted with five singles, including Ocean's highest charting single "Thinkin Bout You" (number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100) and a supporting concert tour in July 2012. Channel Orange debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 and sold 131,000 copies in its first week, eventually selling 621,000 copies in the US by September 2014. Critically, it was the best-reviewed album of 2012 and the year's top-ranked album in numerous critics' lists, including the American Pazz & Jop and the British HMV Poll of Polls. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, Channel Orange was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Urban Contemporary Album. Since then, it has featured in several professional lists ranking the best albums from the 2010s as well as all time.