A new series: Music to get dressed to – Frank Ocean
Gabe Alonso My first love is and always will be music. Every week I’ll feature a new artist (or old) that moves me in some way. These are the artists that either dress well themselves or help me get my swag on when I’m getting ready to hit the bars. First up – Frank Ocean.
Frank Ocean is a 23 year old Beverly Hills by way of New Orleans based singer. He’s also in a little group you may have heard of called Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. Well, the dude has a pretty good songwriting pedigree, penning songs for like of Justin Bieber, Brandy, and John Legend to name a few. He got signed to Island Def Jam and consequently got ignored. On February 16th, he finally decided he had enough. He released his album, Nostalgia, for free on his tumblr. He took to Twitter to explain how Def Jam had nothing to do with the album. It was all him. Well, we’re lucky he did release it because it’s a dope album.
I come from a musician’s background, so I’ve been know to be pretty critical of music (some may say a bit elitist. Whichever). Especially on the vocals. So, when I was told Frank Ocean had one of the best R&B albums out in a long time, I was intrigued. After my first listen, I wasn’t entirely convinced of the album’s merits. My friends were all raving about it, but I couldn’t hear it. It took me a couple days to pinpoint exactly who I thought he sounded like. I finally was able to figure it out – Ocean is like the illegitimate baby of Drake and Ryan Leslie. He sings and he raps and he kinda does that thing in between. Vocally, he has a similar style and tone to Ryan Leslie, which is a pretty smooth voice.
The album is a laid back collection of songs that are perfect for getting you into that lady killer mood (and her in the mood, if you know what I mean). The interludes are named after 90′s video games (like Goldeneye, only best video game to come out in the last 20 years) and the sound of a cassette tape rewinding is unmistakable. Check out my favorite song from the album, “Novacane,” and grab this dude’s album.
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