He titled the album as a reference to the neurological phenomenon grapheme–color synesthesia, through which he had perceived the color orange during the summer he first fell in love. His songwriting explores themes of unrequited love, decadence, social class, and drugs through the use of surrealistic imagery, conversational devices, and descriptive narratives depicting dark characters. Vocally, Ocean uses a free-form flow as well as alternating falsetto and tenor registers throughout the album. Noted by writers as musically unconventional, Channel Orange draws on electro-funk, pop-soul, jazz-funk, and psychedelic styles, as well as nonmusical sounds such as film dialogue and ambient noise that function as interludes. Its recording also featured guest appearances from Odd Future rappers Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator, vocalist/songwriter André 3000, and guitarist John Mayer.

Other producers who worked on the album included Om'Mas Keith and Pharrell Williams. Rather than rely on samples as he had with his mixtape, Ocean wanted to approach sound and song structure differently on the album. After releasing his mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra the previous year, Ocean began writing new songs with Malay, a producer and songwriter who then assisted him with recording Channel Orange at EastWest Studios in Hollywood. It was released on July 10, 2012, by Def Jam Recordings. Channel Orange (stylized as channel ORANGE) is the debut studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter Frank Ocean.

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