“I woke / You were there / Tracing planets on my forehead / But I forget 23 / Like I forget 17 / And I forget my first love / Like you forget a daydream” are nostalgic lyrics about intimacy and memory only Frank Ocean could write, nestled into “White” as soft infants are softer sheets. As these songs in the playlist range from timeless, minimal ballads to soaring, anthemic hits as alluded to in LVRN co-founder Justice Baiden's tweet on R&B, it’s clear Ocean ’s reputation as one of the most acclaimed artists of his generation has everything to do with trusting intuitions and nothing to do with fearing expectations. Much of his work operates without the pretense of fear, ignoring trends in search of the bigger picture. His lyrics enjoy freeform surrealism, challenging to pin down to any one influence, and his ear for the music accompanying the words has yet to fail him. Songwriting has long been the bright red cherry on top of Frank Ocean's caked-with-soul sound. Fortunately, for the fan who prefers a tidy and neat streaming experience, the officially-sanctioned Frank Ocean discography likely satisfies even the pickiest of people. The free-to-download 2011 mixtape nostalgia,ULTRA. has yet to hit streaming at press time save for three singles, as do singles like “Whip Appeal,” “Acura Integurl,” “Pyrite” and “Memrise.” His 2016 visual album Endless can’t be streamed individually on Apple Music or Spotify. Oddly (or fittingly) enough, it's one of the most realistic, down-to-earth songs on the set.For as many songs and albums 33-year-old singer, songwriter, record producer, photographer and visual artist Frank Oceanhas put out into the world, his official discography in major streaming services comes out to just two albums-2012 Def Jam album channel ORANGE and the 2016 Boys Don’t Cry album Blonde-and a slew of singles. "Swim Good," a grim escape fantasy, has the singer driving his car to the shore, his trunk "bleeding" with "broken hearts": "I woulda put tints on my windows, but what's the difference?/I feel like a ghost, no Swayze, ever since I lost my baby." "Nature Feels" is a Garden of Eden fantasy over the swirling neo-disco of MGMT's "Electric Feel." And then there's "Novacane," a dreamlike midtempo tale filled with drugs, conquests, and anxiety. When he's not looking back, he's still living in his head. Much of the material indeed carries a longing for the past - strange since Ocean is still in his early twenties. It's all in his wistful, often self-effacing perspective and numbed, restrained delivery, heard at full power in "Songs for Women," where he tries to arrange an after-school rendezvous in his dad's empty house and brags about "harmonizing to Otis, Isley, Marvin" but eventually laments that his woman doesn't listen to him or his music. Ocean's uniqueness doesn't lie in the productions he uses - they're neither exceptional nor particularly left of center here - or his range of inspirations and references. Ocean also weaves clever threads, like mentioning Stanley Kubrick one moment and sampling dialogue from the director's Eyes Wide Shut during another. It shifts between original material - produced by Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, MIDI Mafia, Happy Perez, and James Fauntleroy II - and anti-pigeonhole re-voicings of songs by Coldplay, Mr. Compared to most releases of its kind, Nostalgia, Ultra is plotted with care, not slapped together with haste. Frank Ocean co-wrote songs for John Legend ("Quickly") and Brandy ("1st & Love"), signed to Def Jam, and connected with rap group Odd Future, but his career as a solo artist did not gain traction until he linked to an upload of this, his first mixtape, on his Tumblr blog in early 2011.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |