Frank Ocean, 'Boys Don't Cry'

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

that's the core of ILM

lex is an acquired taste

if i'd shaded k michelle as a ratchet reality tv joke while praising frank ocean would anyone have said a thing? (that's the subtext of all the "transcended r&b" stuff.) (and k michelle gets shaded every day on twitter for being a reality tv mess and it's deemed acceptable.)

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

― thrill of transgressin (Eazy), Monday, August 22, 2016 7:38 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is otm

Hmm...

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7487032/frank-ocean-endless-album-straw-broke-universal-music-back-may-get-sued

It's also worked for independent artists before Ocean -- Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book became the first-ever streaming-only release to reach the Billboard 200 albums chart, debuting at No. 8 as an Apple Music exclusive in May. With Ocean almost certainly set to hit No. 1 this week via his digital-only release (in addition to streaming on Apple Music, it's for sale in the iTunes Store), it raises the question of how important a record label is at all in 2016, as services offer marketing and advance money that a label would otherwise provide.

Such a sick move. "After an interminable wait (in music industry standards, at least), Ocean fulfilled his contractual obligations, sources tell Billboard, and increased his potential profit share from 14 percent to 70 percent of total revenues from Blond within a 24-hour period, seemingly pulling a fast one on the biggest music company in the world in the process."

!!!!

I gotta be honest, I'm finding all this way more fasincating than the album.

it gives him better material

that's a pretty incredible story -- IF it works out for Ocean (ie, if Universal/Def Jam can't come up with a reason to sue him, which I'm sure they will). For sticking it to a major label, I give him props, just hope he isn't permanently blacklisted in the industry.

I'm not sure I like it. If he gets away with it, surely every label contract will become even more nefarious, right? Plus it resulted in a shit album being sold to his audience under false pretenses. It's... Not good?

this is a fun story but i feel like if getting out of a record contract was as easy as "deliver your label a fake album and then give the real thing to someone else" it would have been discovered before now

It has been.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_(Teenage_Fanclub_album)

Contractual obligations

@Frederik - it's only a bad precedent if Def Jam screwed him with a shit deal.

err, i mean - if his deal with Def Jam wasn't shitty, it's a bad precedent...

none of the examples in that thread happened in the last 25 years

in any event frank's issues with def jam go back pretty far, i wouldn't be surprised if they washed their hands of him a while back and were fine with letting him go if they recouped whatever money they put into the project

anyway this album is not quite as good as i was expecting but i like it a lot. i think it kinda starts weird, i like "nikes" but it doesn't really make much sense in the context of the album. the next few songs feel pretty channel orange-y and maybe out of place with what follows also. "solo" through "nights" is pretty incredible i think, none of the complaints people have about some of those tracks -- no beats, non-linear structures -- bother me, i think there's a lot to chew on lyrically and good hooks. "good guy" is maybe my fav song on this, i wish it was full-length but in general i like all the short songs on this. not quite sure how i feel about the final third of it... "godspeed" is pretty great, the album is pretty organ heavy and it's cool to hear him go more overt gospel even tho him in that context still sort of throws me for a loop. i like "white ferrari" but i also like bon iver... "seigfried" has a memorable ending but is overall a little ponderous i think and for being 9 minutes "futura free" ends up feeling kinda minor compared to how the last record ends.

ultimately i wish the beginning and ending stretches held up to the middle but there's enough stuff i like on either to where i think i'll play this all the way through a lot this year.

i'll admit that there are a bunch of points on this album where i don't know wtf he's talking about but the lyrics that are direct and not space-y i really connect w/ to the point that i don't even really care about the other stuff

Carl Wilson's take.

I hate big labels as much as the next guy but that move is super shady. Def Jam could prove that those 2M where used to pay all those producers and guest artists.

A drake dream heard underwater, no less.

Yeah, I hate this.

xxp he paid that $2M back, though.

Ok, this is growing on me a little bit. The Pink + White to Self Control stretch of songs is fantastic (remove the skit, please and thank you). Somebody could probably make a pretty good Playing God out of the best songs from Blonde and Endless

It helps to skip Nikes. I don't understand the breathless praise for that song or for "Seigfried" which is just not good at all.

Frank's 100 fave films

my goodness that's a dull list

must be a secret ILXer

Time to re-do "Puce Moment" with a Frank Ocean song

the mom weed interlude reminds me so much of the last track on Music Has the Right to Children by Boards of Canada. the bed of synths and the timbre of his mom's voice are exactly like the PSA sampled in that track.

That sound/filter/effect at 1:50 in Nikes.

got apple music to listen to this, which i am doing now. nikes is stunning.

the meandering surfer guitar on this second track is rad

got apple music to listen to this

iirc you can also buy it

i went into the record shop the other day and they didn't seem to have it

digitally

I guess mp3s really are over

after a few more listens there's some pretty moments on this but it's very inconsistent and the sequencing really does it no favours. when the actual songs are so fragmented and formless already, all the interludes just fracture it even further.

id be fine if someone edited the bird whistle out of solo btw

this album provokes no dissatisfaction in me. i think it is good the way it is.

If Nikes, Ivy, Pink and White, Nights and Siegfried had been an intermediary e.p that surfaced 3 years ago I'd of been hailing him as the second coming. This is just a little insubstantial for all the hype. Truth is I keep hoping that he's gonna surprise us with the real album of 'Boys Don't Cry'...

This album is such an awkward bluff.

Skyline To is the true keeper from this

whew! It took long enough:

When you listen to “Blonde,” characterizations like “R. & B. deconstructionist” suddenly feel insufficient. If Ocean was ever interested in toying with genre conventions, he has since widened his gaze. These days, his work feels not only post-genre but post-album, and even post-song.

[snip]

At a time when a pop lyric is only as strong as its potential to become a T-shirt logo or an Instagram caption, Ocean is a genuine misfit. His free-form lyrics are a no-hashtag zone.

I was worried that no one would imply the album was post-genre.