REVIEW: Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra

Frank Ocean
Nostalgia/Ultra


In a culture that’s smothered by the likes of Usher, Chris Brown and other mainstream darlings, it’s easy to write off the entire RnB genre as one that’s entirely made to market; where the goal is to merely ‘make money’, not actual art.

This year, 23 year-old wonder-kid Frank Ocean ripped that too-easy assumption right out of my thinking, creating some of the most beautiful (and intelligent) music I have heard in a long time. The fact that Frank Ocean is part of Odd Future proves an anomaly. The crew, led by the consistently off-the-wall Tyler, the Creator, are known more for their strangely amoral rap, not romantic crooning. Odd Future is underground art’s violent reaction to the likes of commercial-and-therefore-redundant Young Money, and Ocean is the fresher, much better Drake.

In fact, in light of the above connection, it does make sense that Nostalgia/Ultra is part of the ‘swag’ rebellion.

The mixtape begins with Ocean’s original lyrical interplay over Coldplay’s 'Strawberry Swing'. It draws readily on the nostalgia of childhood, remarking on humanity’s inherent mortality (“we are all mortals aren’t we?”). The world is on fire; the “spaceships are lifting off of a dying world”, but he claims “to have loved the good times here”  - though the jarring alarm at the end of the track seems to wake the listener out of the ‘no regrets’ mentality the song brings.

Frank Ocean - Strawberry Swing

We all need to wake up sometime, and 'Novacane' readily provides some much needed reality, detailing the emotional castration inflicted by a “model broad with a Hollywood smile”, who “said she wanted to be a dentist real bad”, but “she’s paying for tuition doing porn in the valley”. Like Ocean, I too am astounded by the really ‘unwise’ (dumb) decisions girls make in pursuit of happiness or their dreams or whatever. There’s “no drug around quite like what (he’s) found in you”, and the “novacane for the pain” will never, ever be enough. 

'We All Try' pulls away from the total pleasure and utmost pain that love always brings for a while (Buddha was onto something here – to not love would be safe, but boring), and peruses the nature of belief/faith/spirituality, concluding that he “just don’t believe we’re wicked/(he) know that we sin/but (he) do believe we try”. There may be a colossal war being waged in our souls, but there is an amazing hope at the end of the tunnel.

'Songs for Woman' is Ocean at his most charming, detailing how he wooed his girl with his angelic voice (it definitely happened - I’m falling myself here). He “can give you chills harmonizing to Otis, Isley, Marvin”. I love the honesty. If you have a voice, go and find your muse. She will fall for you. 'Love Crimes' immediately turns the whole dreamy concept around; illustrating the violent ends romance can bring some people. The track gets a little help from a sample of Nicole Kidman’s manipulative character in Eyes Wide Shut, another creative touch to a highly intelligent, yet very accessible record. It’s as close to the rabidity of Odd Future as Ocean gets; he’s tends to be more explicit than violent (see further).

Frank Ocean Songs For Women

Stellar track, 'There Will Be Tears' is the pinnacle of the record’s existence. Surprisingly enough, it’s not about a girl, but about Ocean’s own non-existent father. He “can’t be there with you/but (he) can dream”; it’s utterly heartbreaking, with the sadness mirroring (and balancing) the unmasked hatred of Tyler, the Creator’s own father in Tyler’s 2009 mixtape (called 'Bastard' - download this immediately). It seems that buried within Odd Future’s creative genius is a bunch of hurting boys. It is very raw; no wonder they are riding a well-deserved internet thunderstorm.

The hurt continues in 'Swim Good', detailing the very real male urge to hurl yourself into the ocean swim as far as you can to escape the manipulative/needy/(self)destructive/hurting/____ girl you’ve left on the beach. “I’m about to dive in the ocean/imma try to swim from something bigger than me”; the metaphor is self explanatory, but the aptly named Ocean explains it all anyway (“I feel like a ghost …ever since I lost my baby”).

'Dust' takes Ocean’s figurative song writing technique even further. Ocean is a literary figure, the main character in his own novel. His “muse” can stay in his library even though “the pages turn to dust”. He “fell in love with you girl /you let yourself inside /with no respect for privacy /you said there's too much on my mind/then you ripped out a page /and set that shit on flame”. Ocean is a writer writing about being a writer. I completely understand the predicament. 

'American Wedding' riffs over The Eagles classic 'Hotel California', creating a tragic Hollywood-in-the-80s imbued ballad, which comments aggressively on the state of marriage in America, i.e., cheap, plastic, kind of brittle, prone to snapping readily (“girl if you stay /you'll probably leave later anyway /it's love made in the USA”). The final track of Nostalgia/Ultra, 'Nature Feels' takes an aesthetically similar route, using a MGMT modern classic and Biblical narrative to detail the connection between sexuality and spirituality (two concepts that are inextricably tied - for better or worse). It’s beautifully explicit: “feeling like adam when he first found out this existed/me and my ever trying out our first positions”. Crassly idyllic, but Frank Ocean can and will make you swoon regardless of the content.

Now I know it is bad form to break down every song in a record (or mixtape in this case). I don’t care. Ultra/Nostalgia is a piece of amazing art worth breaking your word count for. I will be listening to this every day for a very long time. Go and get it please.

Written by Theo Sangster.