So….this dude is hype right now. Last week he released a note that his first love was a man, aka his coming out letter, except he’s not gay. Suddenly everyone is rushing to his side with congratulations and symphathies. Then he releases his album ‘Channel Orange’ a week early and everyone is going mad for it. Wow……… dunno bout you but that screams MARKETING to me.

So the dude came out…. so what?!? why the big fuss about it?

I first heard of the guy back in December when he was shortlisted as one of the ‘Sound of 2012‘ artists, he’s also one of the artists I didn’t bother checking out.

To me, Channel Orange sounds like a mixture of Drake with Usher‘s vocal but with his own spin on it. It’s real R&B, not the dance infused crap you get recently. I don’t think anything about the album is amazing and I really don’t understand how some review websites are claiming this to be perfect, a huge talent for 2012. Sure, he might be a big talent, but perfect album? no.

This is an interesting debut R&B album with some high points, good vocals and nice messages, thats it, period. It’s not perfect, it’s nowhere near perfect, in fact I don’t even think the album has any really quality songs. What even is perfect? Perfection is subjective.

The coolest thing about Channel Orange is ‘Start’, the intro track which plays the Playstation start-up screen music – ok cool! you’ve got my attention. ‘Thinkin Bout You’ is very nice, but very Drake. ‘Fertilizer’ and ‘Not Just Money’ are funny interludes. ‘White‘ has GOT to be the song with the most pointless featured artist John Mayer, it’s just a minute instrumental with no vocals and yet John Legend is apparently featured?…. right.

Nothing really grabs my attention, apart from Pyramids, an almost 10-minute long tune with a cool sound that completely switches halfway through. To me its the best track on the album.

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I probably wouldn’t even be reviewing this album if it wasn’t for the hype, would the reviewers be calling this perfect it wasn’t for the stunt? I don’t think so. His marketing scheme has worked, but the music hasn’t. It’s not perfect, it’s just an ok album that I don’t really care for too much and probably won’t listen to again in any time soon.

Favoured tracks: Pyramids, Thinkin Bout You, Sweet Life.

6.5/10

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