For inspiration, he and Malay listened to older records to either use as musical references or set a mood at the studio, listening to music by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix. My favourite track on here has to be Lost, closely followed by Bad Religion, where Ocean's vocal's are full of raw emotion. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

John Calvert of The Quietus wrote that his lyrics treat love as "innocent", and feature "flying-as-love" metaphors and "respectful euphemisms" for sex such as a flight on a " fighter jet". Five singles were released from the album—"Thinkin Bout You" on April 17, 2012, [89] "Pyramids" on June 8, [90] "Sweet Life" on July 6, [2] "Lost" on December 17, [91] and "Super Rich Kids" on March 17, 2013. It has a bright, Motown-inspired chorus, [64] a simple rhythmic cadence, gently strummed guitar, wistful vocals, and a perkily whistled coda. At the time of writing this every single of the 6 "promo copies" currently listed for sale is actually the bootleg.The two tracks that move me in ways I cannot describe are Bad religion and Pink Matter, and attempting to sing along is like therapy, understanding the lyrics a mystery and despite it I feel immersed in the amazing stories Frank Ocean is trying to share. The lushly produced songs on 'Channel Orange' are connected by tape-damaged interludes of dialogue and sound effects and warped snippets of tracks, giving things an intimate, homemade scope and feel. In its first week of release, Channel Orange sold 131,000 copies and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 on July 18, 2012. On July 9, he made his television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and performed "Bad Religion" with backing from the show's house band The Roots and a strings section. Instead, channel ORANGE is a meditative voyage through Ocean’s innermost thoughts, no matter how intangible the topics.

The lyrics follow an emotional confession to a taxi driver by a narrator brooding over a secretive intimate relationship. Brice Ezell from PopMatters wrote that it denotes "the vital midpoint of the overarching narrative", where "the wittier tone of the record's front half gives way to an emotionally dense second half. In November 2013, it was ranked at number nine on Complex magazine's list of "The 50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years", with contributing journalist Dale Eisinger writing in an accompanying essay: "Ocean took a simple route with the cover … Employing the classic Cooper Black font — a staple of his Odd Future crew and hip-hop history, alike — next to a more modern, Sans-Serif font shows just how smart this dude is, looking back to the past, while clearly aware of his surroundings.Ocean spent more time with Malay, introducing him to his Odd Future collective, while connecting creatively through their respective songwriting, which led to their partnership for Channel Orange. Thinkin Bout You" became Ocean's highest charting single in the US, peaking at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. Scrapping his original plan of including it in the album's liner notes, [13] Ocean published a TextEdit file as an open letter through his Tumblr blog on July 4.