Frank Ocean – Blond

Yeah this is crazy good, idk why but smt about this one I like more then the new repress

Honestly the fact that Frank Ocean refuses to reissue this on vinyl makes me kind of hate the guy. Not to mention that Channel Orange never got an official pressing to begin with

Alright,

I've owned both an original 2016 Black Friday pressing and the 2022 repress for quite a while now and spin both every so often, but I never got around to properly comparing the two pressings side by side...until now. Recently, I decided to spin both of them back to back and take notes on what I noticed between the two to determine which pressing is the "definitive" one. This is one of my favorite albums ever, I’ve heard this album what feels like millions of times over the years, so I feel like I’m pretty familiar with it at this point for me to notice any big differences between the two pressings.

When looking at the packaging I honestly prefer the black & white cover of the OG over the repress’s white/standard cover, but packaging-wise the 2022 repress is a lot better. It’s much sturdier and it comes with extra content, although I will say that the extra content makes the entire packaging of the repress a lot thicker, in turn making it difficult to put the extras and the record back in at times.

Comparing the overall sound of the two pressings took me by complete surprise. Both my 2016 OG and 2022 repress are in VG+/borderline NM shape with little to no flaws, and I’ve taken great care of them, so none of the issues really stem from the condition of the records. Both sound amazing, but they each have their own flaws, and I would say that those flaws are mainly due to mastering. The 2022 repress sounds like it was properly mastered for vinyl, versus the 2016 OG that, while it sounds great, has more issues with clarity. The 2022 pressing has very minor mastering issues. I will say that the most common issue found between both pressings had to be sibilance/distortion, specifically with the 2016 pressing where it would randomly go from too quiet to too loud/harsh at moments. For more specifics, here's a condensed version of my notes comparing each side of both pressings:

2016 Blond
Side A
- Noisy, Side A started off with slightly muddy vocals but gradually they got better/clearer
- No pops/clicks at all

Standout tracks:
- Pink + White

Side B
- Very slight sibilance starting around Skyline To
- Second half of Nights sounded incredible, everything sounded clear
- Only 1 noticeably loud pop/click


Standout tracks:
- Solo
- Self Control
- Nights

Side C
- Started off very loud and clear, but towards the end of Solo (Reprise) the vocals started to get slightly distorted and continued to be through Facebook Story
- Vocals became less distorted/clear again on Close To You
- White Ferrari started off sounding great but towards the very end there was quite a bit of sibilance
- Side C had the most pops/clicks yet, even then it was only a few

Standout tracks:
- Close To You
- White Ferrari

Side D
- Right away Side D sounded loud and clear, Seigfried is probably the best sounding song off this entire pressing
- Very minimal noise that was really only noticeable during the quieter ages of Godspeed
- Sibilance only started towards the ending of Futura Free, but it didn't overtake the song at all, it was very minimal

Standout tracks:
- Seigfried
- Godspeed
- Futura Free

2022 Blonde
Side A
- Clear, loud vocals
- A few pops/clicks

Standout tracks:
- Nikes
- Ivy

Side B
- Clear, loud (again)
- Towards the end of Skyline To the vocals began to sound a bit more distorted throughout the rest of Side B

Standout tracks:
- Solo
- Skyline To
- Nights

Side C
- Solo (Reprise) was also pretty loud and clear on this pressing, but unlike the 2016 pressing it maintained the clarity and didn't become distorted
- Not a single pop/click

Standout tracks:
- Solo (Reprise)
- Pretty Sweet
- Close To You
- White Ferrari

Side D
- Started off quieter than usual, but was still pretty clear sounding
- The bass on Seigfried was very punchy and sounded incredible, but towards the end of the song the vocals began to get a little distorted
- Distortion ended as soon as Godspeed started

Standout tracks:
- Seigfried
- Godspeed
- Futura Free

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO DECIDE WHICH PRESSING TO GET, I would honestly go with the 22 repress. I love both pressings, but the repress is just miles better in of sound and packaging. Again, a few issues here and there with the sound but it's night and day compared to the OG pressing. I get it, the history of the original 2016 pressing is pretty cool, so I wouldn't blame you if you decide to pay extra to get an original. I'm obviously keeping both since the album means a lot to me, but I think I'll mainly spin the repress from now on.

TL;DR: In my opinion the 2022 repress is way better sounding, it sounds like it was properly mastered for vinyl and dare I say it's ALMOST an "audiophile-level" pressing, the 2016 OG pressing sounds alright but is missing that extra punch needed for it to be on-par with the 22 repress. 2016 OG pressing is still worth tracking down if you're a Frank/Blond (Blonde?) fan and is a very neat collector's item.

If you already have the recent repressing of this album is there any advantage to this one ? Other than bragging rights ( sound quality wise )

The hype over this record is wakt, for this highly overrated subpar album. It just proves that modern collectors don’t give a shit about music. Like one guy commented about his ‘collection value’ dropping because a few of these sold for cheap, get a life.
Propagandhi said it best - “Anyone when we used to believe that music was a sacred place and not some fucking bank machine?”

2 years since I snagged my copy of this... sadly there was a slight value drop for the repress but still my golden item... even just having it, looking at it and knowing the history of the drop, that end of summer 2016. Truly unbelievable record that lives up to the IMMENSE hype. It's on every RYM/Hipster top 10 for a reason (that is an endearing delegation, mind you). My copy definitely isn't the best, a pretty rough corner ding, bad upper seam split, Shipped from a seller I didn't 100% trust AND international. All of this aside I love this copy for what it is. I didn't even play it for over a year... waited for a special occasion. Even contemplated selling it multiple times throughout that time. Until one day it just felt right to do it (listen to it, I mean!). Caught myself in a crossroads of life paths and that moment felt deserved to truly indulge in this record. It was pretty great. Almost like I heard it for the first time, during a hurricane Irma evacuation and blackout in Fall 2017. What an appreciative artistic statement I can still say it is to me.

Poor souls still getting scammed . Hint: check their profile and if all the reviews are left within 10 minutes of each other; or are from new profiles; or are listed way below the market average; or the won’t sent current dated pictures; something might be fishy.

If you don’t read these warnings then hopefully you’re lucky enough to get a refund!

Edit: I will continually purchase and leave negative scammer, so please go out and get a real job lmaoooooo

Jesus, the value of this pressing is dropping pretty drastically. RIP our collection values

The official repress just sold out in 1 hour.. Reddit says initial stock was somewhere around 10k

Just bought the repress! Now we just need Channel Orange.