Frank Ocean, 'Boys Don't Cry'

from the Rolling Stone review: "In fact, it is so meditative that there are few beats at all."

A few songs in and I'm not feeling this. The melodies are pretty, but the tracks sound like demos. Dude should've waited another four years if that's what it would've taken to get the levels right.

Dude might've gotten a little too high on his own supply.

idk, i could hear this as a product of procrastination just as equally as a couple of bits he had lying about that he spent indolent indulgent years artfully stonewashing and fraying the seams of just so

the trap is to care at all. maybe that's the point

so what you're saying is i should wait until I cop a new stonewashed jean jacket for the autumn or nah

(to buy/listen to this album i mean)

I heard this eating lunch in some hipster place in Hudson today after a 2-day airport/hotel journey, fried and exhausted, and it sounded absolutely perfect in that context, even the weed rant

in mitigation it does check its dubiously priced coat in vaguely near to scritti's with the "showed me love / glory from above"

hm gonna have to revisit this one

the trap is to care at all

isn't it always

alright treeship calm down. no i meant for an artist who trades specifically in ambivalence/apathy/fleeting fraught intensities

'pink & white' is just as much the usual n.e.r.d & theology as anything else, i realise, but pickings are slim

alright treeship calm down

i won't stand for this

i do hear the scritti tho, sort of a hook that could've appeared on anomie

the trap is to keep on breathiing

it's a concept album about how his mom told him not to smoke weed but fuck u mom

tbh i think "ivy" sounds like an outtake from to record only water for ten days, and imo frank loves rhcp

guess you can't work in the L.A. scene w/out admitting to liking them. Maybe it was the same re Jackson Browne in 1985.

I'm listening again and a few of the songs are starting to stand out, like Ivy, Self Control, and Pink + White. But the bulk of it remains a hookless morass.

At least John Mayer isn't on these albums.

I'm happy with 3 good songs.

At least John Mayer isn't on these albums

so much blooz guitar, coulda fooled me

so much zzz guitar more like

what it's saying beyond being generally pinteresting

All mood board

The complaints I am reading here -- "no songs," something something "stonewashed jean vest," an overall impression that this is more of an exploration of a certain mood than something that "says anything" -- make it sound amazing. Probably too good for me to ever listen to.

it doesn't even really work as just a mood piece or anything, it doesn't evoke anything at all

i liked channel orange but i can barely remember anything about this after multiple listens

I have taken the novel step of actually listening to this (new laptop, hadn't bothered to get itunes on it) and so far I like it?

(#wow would you look at that #scintillating take how could you produce such insights katherine #whoa)

Definitely less immediate than Channel Orange but it sounds heavenly.

I think the clumsy rollout prevented this from arriving with the boom it otherwise might have? Seems like he did himself no favors by releasing the leftovers first.

Endless definitely isn't leftover material

I dunno, it feels pretty secondary to the album

the staircase is the true standout

how's elliot smith's guest verse? he keeping the beef w/drake going?

people "wrestling" with this album dunno if i have the guts to listen to it

https://twitter.com/annkpowers/status/767825137907433474

music writers are making this album sound like a lot more work than it really is

detangling

i wish people wouldn't keep making us listen to music, can't we just lie down and rest

3 tracks in and.. shit this is great!

ok yeah .. goes a bit Secret Life Of Plants-y a few tracks further in.

If "Nikes" had come out a week or a month before the rest, it would get the credit it deserves.

average price for the mag on Ebay; $500 o_0

So apparently Mike Dean did the mastering on this and a lot of people think it sounds great? I just can't get into this thin, trebly sound.

This kind of has the same kind of hollow and rushed preset based production that Life of Pablo has.

According to wikipedia Mike Dean only worked on the Solo (reprise) track.

So much for art:

http://pitchfork.com/news/67748-frank-ocean-no-longer-on-def-jam-blonde-was-self-released/

Did David Carson design the magazine?

or did someone just rip his (ray gun magazine) style completely

damn @ lex getting sonned in a twitter beef

the framing of lex's piece isn't my favorite but the writing about this record is already 1) wild 2) mostly identically wild, in a way that it would never be about the other records he mentions

yup

like i am not thrilled at how many sentences i'm going to read about how the spelling of "blond/blonde" works in french

i like this record a good amount but the whole "i'm so moved i can't even put it into words" wave really ridiculous

Frank Ocean Reinvents R&B By Making An Album Without Bass

I'll give him one thing though. I remember back when Eminem started releasing albums so wack the fanboys were certain it was all a prank and that he had another, superior album up his sleeve. FO kinda actually did that with the release of Endless, an album so weak that everyone was relieved when there was another, slightly better one released right after it.

"Other people really enjoy this thing that I don't like/am only so-so about and that's Bad because they should be liking this Other Thing instead" is a weird stance to take.

I feel like it's awfully common here