The allure of famous associates drew attention to his shapeshifting debut album, Channel Orange, which reached number 2 in the US and UK in 2012 and topped many critical lists. Acclaimed for its non-conformist song construction and bravura psychedelic blend of soul, jazz and electro, it none the less packed a pop punch this follow-up album conspicuously lacks.

Four years in the making, released under two names (Blond on a free limited edition CD given away in pop-up stores and Blonde on Apple Music stream) with two different track sequences (and that’s without counting the 18 tracks of offcuts released last Friday as arty black and white long form video Endless), Ocean’s second album is so laden with quirkiness you may end up wishing he was a little less prodigiously talented and a little more focussed.

From the narcoleptic disorientation of dreamy opening track Nikes, to the whimsy of Pink + White (with ecstatically wordless harmonies from Beyoncé), via the shimmering downbeat acoustica of Ivy, Blonde makes for sensationally beautiful background music that can morph into a bizarre hodgepodge of disparate ideas when you concentrate on bringing it into the foreground. Ocean’s languid, seductive singing (playfully reshaped with Varispeed and Autotune effects) and the luxurious breadth of his harmonic gifts can sometimes distract from just how experimentally convoluted his sense of song construction really is.