Damn is that "Primetime's" car?
Listening to R&B isn’t something I do often. There’s just something about listening to a good-looking black dude croon sexually explicit nothings in my ear-buds that makes me unreasonably uncomfortable. Mostly, I think it is just because I’m extremely white and awkward but that’s neither here nor there.
As of recently (like for a year and a half), I found myself enamored with OFWGKTA member and new R&B sensation, Frank Ocean. Seriously, it’s kind of creepy. Like, I would listen to this guy sing anything. Even if all he did was cover Journey and REO-Speedwagon songs for the rest of his career, I would still be first in line at the record store the day it drops.
There’s just something about this guy’s voice.
It has this hint of deep-seated pain (you know, the kind you only get when really fucked up things happen to you) that moves through you like a knife. This, coupled with his unabashedly open lyrics forces the listener to not only hear what Ocean has to say, but feel it as well.
Though, his new album, “Channel Orange,” has given us even greater insight into the life and times of Frank Ocean, his first mix tape, “nostalgia: ULTRA,” was the catalyst to his fast-rising success and newly found fame, making it an obvious choice for this week’s Classic Cut.
Cover: The cover and album title give much insight into what this record is really about. Let’s tackle the cover first. It’s fairly simple, a 80s BMW E30 M3, parked in an area of woods that looks pretty much untouched. Ocean has said that the BMW was always his dream car, which shows me the guy is old school and pretty classy (minus the whole Deion Sanders orange thing). It’s like he has these dreams of grandeur and fame, but doesn’t want to lose the simplicity of his life in his quest for stardom (whoa, intense analytical analysis, THANKS COLLEGE!). The title on the other hand, “nostalgia, ULTRA,” gives is more telling than the picture. Ocean said in an interview with Complex Magazine that, “It’s a longing for the past. That’s what this record felt like. I named it five minutes before we finished mastering. Right before we had to write the labels on the CDs and get out of there. Ultra, because it’s also modern because of the sonics of it. It felt right. That’s how I am. I just go with it.” Although this goes a little into the sound bit which we will delve into shortly (let’s not get ahead of ourselves) Ocean is trying to capture an older soul sound with a modern feel, which he has done almost perfectly on this album.
Sound:How do you try and describe an album that transcends so many different types of music? I mean, this guy sampled everyone from Radiohead to Coldplay — The Eagles to MGMT. The best part about it is he makes every song his own and in most cases, better than the original (I can’t say “American Wedding” is better than “Hotel California.” I JUST CAN’T OKAY?!) When
(Above: Trey Songz) "Watchu hatin' on me for bruh?"
he’s not taking songs of yesteryear and putting his own unique spin on them, he’s creating his own brand of hip-hop infused R&B. On songs like, “Songs for Women,” “Swim Good,” and his breakout hit “Novacane,” Ocean sultrily croons over the smooth hip-hop beats placed under him, which ends up sounding like modernized collaboration between A Tribe Called Quest and Al Green. No matter what Ocean is singing over, he has separated himself from other half-rapper/half-singers (*Cough* Drake *Cough* Trey Songz) and made a name for himself in the R&B community.Trey Songz: “Watchu hatin’ on me for bruh?”
Lyrics: I’m going to try something here. Instead of telling you how amazing his lyrics are and proverbially sucking Ocean’s dick for 500 words, I’m just going to give a song breakdown sample.
- “Strawberry Swing” – A love letter to nostalgia, Ocean remembers the good times of his childhood and innocence even though those are long gone.
- “Novacane” – He’s at Coachella. He meets a girl that he wants to get close too, but alas! She’s all fucked up on novacane, so he proceeds to do the drug as well so that he can be with her, but in the end, he’s just numb (emotionally as well as physically, touché Frank, touché.)
- “We All Try” – Ocean believes a lot of things on this song. In addition to his belief in heaven and war, he believes “that marriage isn’t between a man and women but between love and love.” But most of all he believes in man and that the whole world tries to be good. A little naïve (maybe I’m jaded?) but still pretty uplifing.
- “Bitches Talkin’ (Metal Gear Solid)” – This is exactly what it sounds like. It’s just some ladies talking, more specifically about the question, “What is a Radiohead anyway?”
"What IS a Radiohead anyway?"
- “Songs 4 Women” – Throughout the song, Ocean battles back and forth between trying to get women with his music or not. He used to sing songs because “that’s what the bitches wanted” but Ocean slowly grew to realize that women are fickle when his girl began playing Drake in his car (What a jerk!)
- “There Will Be Tears” – Is your dad a deadbeat who left when you were a baby? Me neither. But it’s still sad to hear about. This song reads almost like a journal entry, making it extremely heartfelt. If you don’t have tears in your eyes at the end of this track, I’m pretty sure you’re either a cold, heartless bastard or a robot (Sidenote: Mitt Romney heard this song and had no emotional reaction. Coincidence? I think not.)
- “Swim Good” – Suicide is not cool. Plain and simple. But seriously, this might be the most beautiful song about ending your own life that I’ve ever heard. He has broken so many hearts during his time on earth; it eventually broke him as a man. So he packs them away his Lincoln Towncar’s trunk and drives off a cliff. Heavy stuff.
- “Dust” – The books in this song are a metaphor for his memories and past experiences. Ocean’s wit and intellect really shine through on this song. Also, if you take it literally, it can be a really inspiring song for writers (take note guys).
- “American Wedding” – Unlike the “Hotel California,” which is the sample for this song. American weddings are pretty easy to get out of. This is his storytelling take on the subject.
Impact: There are two subjects that need to be discussed here. The first is that Frank Ocean has finally brought R&B back to where it needs to be. Today’s popular R&B consists of artists like Chris Brown, whom are essentially just pop artists trying to make a buck off dance floor love songs. Ocean is the antithesis of that aesthetic. He is a real person with real problems (not to say Chris Brown doesn’t have some real problems; he does. They are just problems like, “Why am I such an angry little douche?” or “Why do I feel empowered when I hit women?”). Ocean faces his issues head on and works through them in his music, making himself an open book. The open-book lyrical lifestyle Ocean embodies brings to mind our second subject. Ocean has also recently come out as bi-sexual, which in the hip-hop community is not only unheard of, but also unacceptable. This act, which I’m sure was extremely difficult yet also freeing, shows that Ocean is not afraid to be himself, which is something every genre of music has been missing for a long while.
"WHYYYY AM I LIKE THIS? LIFE IS SO HARD FOR A STAR!!!"