[Obenuearema]

I really enjoy this album, but I think a lot of people (ie critics/reviewers) are getting caught up in everything but the music. Even in Pitchfork's review they mention Ocean's sexuality and open letter...and spend a paragraph dissecting its meaning, importance, for all purposes reviewing his letter instead of his music. Obviously these are nice lenses through which to view an artist and their work, but I feel like people should be praising the work and analyzing that before contexualizing everything in light of recent events. 9.5 honestly seems to be pushing it, though. Perhaps by my own tastes I could give this one a near perfect, but compared to how harsh Pitchfork is in their ratings with very little explanation...it's hard not see this as simply feeding the hype.

Which isn't a bad thing, because it is a really good album. I just wish people would talk a little more about that and not so much the letter. It just rubs me the wrong way and sounds condescending or something..."Hey! This is that album by that one black rnb guy - the one who said he's had relationships with men too? How shocking because you know that culture of rnb/rap/black music is rampantly homophobic and anti-woman and incites violence and is really quite awful. But thankfully he's a pioneer and admits open sexuality blah blah blah and the music is nice, too. For rnb."