Looking back at Channel Orange, the album that made Frank Ocean an icon

It’s been almost a week since Frank Ocean opted out of releasing Boys Don’t Cry, a new LP with an impending arrival date that was reported by The New York Times and prefaced with hour after hour of meditative, Apple-sponsored woodworking. Fans around the world held their breath as Friday, August 5th came and went without a release; after months of similar false alarms, those same fans were looking at Ocean as the boy who cried "new music."
I’ve spent the bulk of the w