The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features
monkey-issue-1000x50

Frank Ocean | Nostalgia, Ultra

Self-released (2011)
By DAN WEISS  |  July 27, 2011
3.0 3.0 Stars

FO Main

If anyone's earned the right to bitch about the limitations of being slotted "R&B," it's Frank Ocean. The 24-year-old has a membership in the world's most paid-attention-to rap group (OFWGKTA); credits on Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, and (soon) Jay-Z/Kanye songs, and, finally, a little album he defiantly uploaded to his Tumblr earlier this year — wherein he walks past a Radiohead sample to wax pro-choice, pro-porn, pro-marriage, and pro-"singing songs to get at women," over MGMT, Coldplay, and all seven minutes of "Hotel California." It just happens to be one of the year's best releases, in any genre. The analogue here would be Cody ChesnuTT, who shares Ocean's smartass lo-fi ambition and one-cult-hit status: ChesnuTT's Roots team-up "The Seed" and Ocean's wildfire-spreading "Novacane." Original beats from Tricky Stewart and Midi Mafia underscore Ocean's gray-area R&B, in which, with cinematic vividness, his drug-addict broad possesses both a "rack like wow" and a "brain like Berkeley." This is one of those fabled records that's too good to exist . . . and it doesn't, technically, in any corporeal form. A week before a planned July 26 re-jigger via Def Jam that presumably would've cut all the copyrighted gold, his publicist confirmed "he's still working on it and may just want to focus on new tracks instead." So Google — don't walk — to obtain the original 192k batch of music from March instead of waiting for Nostalgia, LITE, Ocean's good-for-nothing label's attempt to market and re-package Ultra, officially, without all those expensive samples. It's supposedly winnowed down to seven excellent tracks you can pay for, versus an album-of-the-year candidate you can cop free legally (for now). The finished versions of "Acura Integurl" and "Whip Appeal" should justify the wait, however longer that may be, but you need original cuts of "American Wedding," "Nature Feels," and "Strawberry Swing." Collect them all.
Related: Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008, Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968, Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, R&B, Cody Chesnutt,  More more >
| More
Add Comment
HTML Prohibited

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 08/11 ]   Alkaline Trio + MewithoutYou + The Drowning Men  @ Paradise Rock Club
[ 08/11 ]   Eric Harland  @ Regattabar
[ 08/11 ]   Leon Redbone  @ Scullers Jazz Club
ARTICLES BY DAN WEISS
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   FRANK OCEAN | NOSTALGIA, ULTRA  |  July 27, 2011
    If anyone's earned the right to bitch about the limitations of being slotted "R&B," it's Frank Ocean.
  •   THE COOL KIDS | WHEN FISH RIDE BICYCLES  |  July 19, 2011
    As you'd expect from the name, the Cool Kids have a fascination with social status and trends as well as with rebelling against them.
  •   OKKERVIL RIVER | I AM VERY FAR  |  May 26, 2011
    From Green Day's American Idiot to the Hold Steady's Separation Sunday, concept albums have been back in style for a bit.

 See all articles by: DAN WEISS

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2011 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group