Frank Ocean - Channel Orange (2012)

That Potholes list is both OTM and practically impossible to follow for any journalist writing about this.

when i click the potholes link nothing comes up? just a blank brown page with a couple of random album covers

obv this is moot now the album's out there but i felt a bit uncomfortable at how the talk about frank ocean's sexuality refused to die down, from every conceivable angle. expected and maybe even understandable, i was just thinking back to when i came out and how i felt the worst thing would be people making it into a massive deal when it wasn't - the idea of people constantly talking about it and analysing it (ie gossiping) was a bit of a nightmare. i really sympathise with him over that.

this album is just getting dull now though, "pyramids" really stood out as a highlight and i didn't even love it that much

I'm really enjoying it. it's so much jazzier than I expected, rhodesy and loose. there's something almost jarring about the songs oscillating between sung choruses and spoken portions, lists being reeled off, but it's pretty commanding. like almost a Gil Scott-Heron kinda thing?, the vocabulary of it, not that I think it sounds like a Gil record (actually Monks just started, this totally sounds like a Gil record!).

fallon performance is grrrreat.

obv this is moot now the album's out there but i felt a bit uncomfortable at how the talk about frank ocean's sexuality refused to die down

well...it's been six days

Haven't listened to it, but apparently there's a sample from La Jetee which, if so, <3 this man so much.

Hmm...so far I'm kinda with lex, though more positively inclined. Still I think a lot is being hugely read into this now as opposed to this leaping out on its own merits. "Sierra Leone" and "Super Rich Kids" are cool. Jody Rosen said something last night about how this is like seventies Marvin in terms of taking a basic groove and making a song out of it through force of performance and that's not inaccurate but it's also not as remarkable as it could be.

Except Marvin was one of the greatest singers ever and Ocean... isn't.

A key fucking distinction!

I'm with you two so far. The two leaked tracks had already made me wonder whether I overrated last year's release.

Honestly the more this goes on the more I'm locking into the background music instead of his singing. And it's not that the music is some out of nowhere amazing thing, but it's just nice to float along with, like the "Pilot Jones"/"Crack Rock" combination.

this album is just getting dull now though, "pyramids" really stood out as a highlight and i didn't even love it that much

And I gotta say, Lex VERY OTM with this point. It starts and all of a sudden there's a different energy that's been near absent otherwise.

"Thinkin Bout You" is great so far, dude's singing voice is basically like "imagine if Drake was tolerable"

except for his falsetto, which is has this weird driving fragility that makes it very interesting

lol is "Fertilizer" a joke

i def prefer his falsetto to his normal singing voice

i'm not sure the songs are that interesting

i've never seen an album so unanimously rhapsodised about and i'm just confused cuz it's not like i hate it, i just don't think it's interesting at all

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=5699

but then this year is a new low in the amount of hyped music i fuck with tbh

On "Sierra Leone"... I am really digging this groove, it's like an aural cardigan

"Sweet Life"... so far the actual songs on here seem to be designed as throwback comfort food

Then it gets a running shove, past ludicrous and into sheer camp, when you realize it’s the same plot as Disney’s Aida.

aaaaaaaaaaaahhhahahahahahaha omg yes!

xp it would help if the voice was throwback comfort food as well - like that's pretty much what the last two r kelly albums have been but kellz' voice elevates them beyond it at their best, and at their most rote at least ups the comfort levels significantly

"Not Just Money" why are the interludes given names like they are important things you'll want to go back to and play in isolation ("ooh 'Not My Money' is my JAM, don't front!")

"Super Rich Kids" I would rather listen to "Benny and the Jets"

xp: that may be but honestly, fuck R Kelly

that ignorant-ass molesting asshole is getting zero percent of my time/money if I can help it

"Lost" is kinda nice, works as a good follow-on to "Pyramids"

that ignorant-ass molesting asshole is getting zero percent of my time/money if I can help it

― I see you, Pineapple Teef (DJP), Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:52 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

misplaced hyphen joke

ha

'Bad Religion' is great. Up there with 'Novacane','Songs For Women' 'Swim Good' from the first record.

that high huh

fuck R Kelly

you sure?

Yeah I get it Lex you don't rate him.

"Pilot Jones" I don't understand why everyone is leaping directly to Marvin/Stevie comparisons when Maxwell is sitting there forlornly looking at us from the 90s wondering why everyone has forgotten he existed

like, if there's anyone out there more obviously influenced by the nu-soul posse, let me know; I've been kind of out of touch with this shit

In fairness Maxwell's last album got a lot of ILM love and (I think) sold a load of records as well. Doubt he'll be too worried about a lack of hipster blog buzz.

maxwell's last album got a ton of love iirc? and i'm very hyped for the second part of the trilogy, if not a little IMPATIENT by now

but otm it didn't get nearly as much ubiquitous coverage as this

Yeah I've been thinking Maxwell the whole damn time as well. And where IS that second album...

idk if the frank ocean love is "just" hipsterblogbuzz, or at least it seems hipsterblogbuzz is a thing actually guiding the mainstream industry a lot more, so ocean is pretty much a bigger deal than maxwell at this point, sadly

Maxwell's 2009 was a big hit, esp on the R&B chart.

"Crack Rock" I dig the snares and ride cymbals on this beat

xp: I think you guys are completely misreading what I'm saying, which is that I think Frank has more in common with Maxwell/D'Angelo than Marvin/Stevie, and it's weird that everyone is leapfrogging over what seem to me to be really blatant influences for ones that are at least a layer removed (well not that weird seeing as everyone seems determined to make this The Classic Album Of 2012, but it would still be possible to do that without pretending that this album is "Let's Get It On Pt 2")

Ah okay that makes sense.

"Pyramids" okay I see why ppl are pointing to this as the standout (faster tempo, buzzy synths) but to me this is basically breaking a mood that I was enjoying, at least until that bass line comes in at which point I stop caring and start agreeing, this is great

Marvin and Stevie are the go-to references for R&B, for better or worse. It would help if Frank Beverly got his due.

I think Frank has more in common with Maxwell/D'Angelo

apart from one really really important thing ie the VOICE

new Maxwell album and single are apparently coming soon, but he just canceled a bunch of tourdates due to "vocal swelling and hemorrhaging," which is v worrying

lex i'm not really into this frank ocean stuff either but honestly whining over and over that people don't share your exact taste is a terrible look, please chill the fuck out

gee lex, do you have an opinion on how Frank Ocean sings, I'm not really getting a clear sense of where you stand on that

i've never seen an album so unanimously rhapsodised about

this album was released today...

lol is "Fertilizer" a joke

Part of why I made the Prince-in-his-prime comparison: Starfish + Coffee into Dorothy Parker aka is this guy for real.

"Lost" this is great, too; dude has a knack for settling into a groove that conveys ease regardless of the song's subject matter

also re: his singing, it's interesting to me that he's basically using this blank, somewhat fragile instrument that resonate a good third to a fifth below where his songs are set; obv as a dude with a lower voice I am going to be psyched that someone is out there putting out things I could reasonably sing but he's got a bunch of different colors in his timbre between his registers and it's actually pretty canny and smart of him to spread out parts across his vocal range the way he does, since trying to do vocal gymnastics all through his range would be super disjointed

"White (feat John Mayer)" despite this being a pretty instrumental, I feel honor bound to hate it because of John Mayer

"Monks" more hot snares/cymbals