My (short) review of this album:
The Art
Now Frank's not a special singer by any means but with art you can sometimes excuse lack of technical proficiency for ingenuity and expression in a way that forces technical expertise to come second. Unorthodox song structure, gorgeous songwriting, and outstanding production choices on this makes me forgive the fact that Frank can't always hit his notes
Also the engineering job on this album is superb. Malay or whoever was behind the boards did their thing with the mixing and engineering tricks. It's got that soggy yet bright Frank feel to it, and uses a lot of producer techniques like delays and reverbs and whatnot to create a more atmospheric product.
The production is of course top notch. It's hard to make something "complex" nowadays without it feeling overproduced and too loud for no reason but Frank balances that out with a lot of tracks that only utilize minimal chords, which by doing so brings the songs' instruments to the forefront, so you can actually experience the music instead of having to catch the bells and whistles on your 5th or 6th listen. The influences on this album are also A+. I'm hearing hints of Bon Iver, James Blake, Kanye, Pharrell, other indie rock shyt, some gospel (Kim Burrell the queen), and of course 3 Stacks
The Thematics
Music has a tendency to be in your face and straightforward because the implicit goal of songmaking is to create something that connects with the layman and the average person, and often times in an immediate way. But Frank offers you something to figure out and make sense of on your own, for your own memories and own feelings. Frank actually could have not released this album at a better time of the month. The album's aesthetic is a clear callback to that period in late August when summer is coming to a close and the days of fun, retreat, and carelessness near its end as real life returns in the form of school or work or responsibilities. Frank thrives on hitting nostalgic rifts but more importantly the reason why that nostalgia exists. We say goodbye to things, people, experiences, and we let go, which is why we reminisce and look back. Frank says goodbye to old lovers (Self Control aka the sidedikk anthem), old habits (Pink + White), old feelings and assumptions (Siegfried, Solo Reprise), his old life (Futura Free), his child and teenagehood (Godspeed, Ivy), old lessons beaten in his head that he rebels against (Be Yourself -> Solo). This album embodies that feeling of letting go and accepting yourself and accepting change, and that's important to the bulk of Frank's fanbase, most of whom are likely transitioning from teenagehood to adulthood, and are learning to let go of certain things in their lives.
Another thing I was impressed by with this album was the vulnerability. In a generation of fake bodies, fake personalities, fake faces, fake rappers, fake opinions, it's not easy to find something naked and untouched by agendas
9/10. I probably have a lot more to say about this album but I'm still digesting and probably won't have a full fleshed out opinion of this in months
..but thats not a bad thing
You stan 2 fakkits, Frank ocean and Drake, with the way you constantly spam the booth with their fakkit nikka shyt...But I'm the Gay boy
