6 Soulful Christian Albums for Frank Ocean Lovers
Does anybody miss Frank Ocean’s rapping? He had my favorite verse on “Oldie”. Dagnab he was so chill about it!
Anyway…
We are just a few years shy of a decade from blond’s initial release. Where did the time go? Oh, that’s right. It was spent waiting for Frank to put out a new album. (flips a chair in anger) Let’s not get it twisted. I’m not sitting around waiting for one of the most prolific artists of our time to sing about his bisexual excursions, but I am curious what a 2024 Frank would have to say after everything that has shifted in this culture. The cultural landscape is so different. Even a fellow auteur like Donald Glover knows how to contribute when he needed. Glover is on TikTok, now. What?
Anyway (again)…
If you enjoyed blond, by Frank Ocean, you may enjoy these Christian albums.
1. Little Black Wolf — Shua
After a stellar feature on Antoine Bradford’s “Seasons”, I had to find out about this guy, Shua. That quick search led me to this substantive little nugget of an album. Little Black Wolf personifies the image of the wolf, often portrayed as a vicious predator. Yet the culture of fear surrounding the wolf does not exempt it from the reality of being beautifully made by God. Shua delivers a piercing commentary, perfectly measured in how it expresses his ever-complex feelings during the BLM era. This is a combination of alternative mixed with smooth rock, and it is one of the most fulfilling listens I have heard in the past few years of listening to Christian music.
This song punches me every time I listen to it.
2. Find My Way Home — Antoine Bradford
After experimenting with reworked singles of his most popular songs, Bradford leaps forward into his new expanse of sound in this conceptual-themed collection of songs. This is the exploration of the difficulties of the human experience and having accountability. While there is not necessarily the ultra-textured and left-field production, there are striking moments with a few blink-and-you-will-miss-it-type elements that speak to the future of what Bradford's music could be. The writing, lyrically, is more acute in its messaging. Lastly, Bradford's voice still stands above many of his peers.
3. Things Below — Courtney Orlando & Weathrman
Veteran Christian hip-hop producer, Courtney Orlando, formally known as JR, produced the first draft of this album, but the super producer trio, Weathrman, stepped in and re-produced the entire record. This turns into a vulnerable piece of art with a soundscape that is on another planet. It is futuristic-sounding, yet it still harkens, back to the alternative R&B scene of the early 2000s.
Conceptually, the album is a dialogue between Orlando and his therapist where they engage in an honest conversation ranging from Orlando’s career and his personal life including health scares and deaths in his family. This record gets honest and raw in a lot of ways that many Christian records do not. I wish more people knew about it, which is exactly why I am writing about it.
This album contains some four-letter words so… headphones in.
4. Sincerely Yours — Ron Riley
Riley invites us to listen to the soundtrack of his honeymoon. In his previous album, Lessons Learned, he details stories from prior relationships. These journeys coalesce into his follow-up release in which he goes on a beautiful voyage articulating the different facets of his marriage. Sincerely Yours is a much more experimental and colorful record whereas the previous one lent itself to more traditional R&B sounds. With starting a new life as a married man comes new experiences. This joint paints a warm comforting yet exciting picture of life starting anew.
5. Blurr — Xavier Omar
This is Omar’s first independent release since his days at SPZRKT. He details the parts of his life only colored with more uncertainty after all he has accomplished over the past decade. In his earlier days in the Christian rap scene, he was referred to as the Frank Ocean of CHH, much to his annoyance. That was likely due to the singer/songwriter tone of his music mixed with experimental James Blake-ian type production. Here, we see the maturation of that combination taking more unconventional sounds to this Ep. It is not an overstated record knocking you around with weird sounds but implores an array of notes for a fuller glimpse of Omar’s taste. We also get a deeper matter-of-fact messaging that helps color his thinking and sense of humor.
6. Pilgrim — Josh White
This last recommendation is the outlier of the group but is recommended for a specific reason. Christian folk artist, Josh White collaborates with producer Buddy Ross for an indie vibes outfit. Sometime after the release of this record, Ross began working with Frank as a producer on “Be Yourself” and “Facebook Story” for blond. (blonded.blog) You can hear that sound all over this record.
Hearing a folk singer croon over the sound palette of one of blond’s producers is an odd pairing, but it works for me.
