Like its title, ‘Wither’ is an understated love ballad that slinks along. Just as it gets in its stride, the song concludes with the lusty line “Like holidays, I get off on ya” and swiftly comes to an end. A lot of ‘Channel Orange’ sounded like you were listening to it on next door’s stereo, and this track is similar: distant, concealed, not quite within reach. Ocean certainly does have this penchant for making songs drift in and out in an almost hypnotic way.
Not something we can all relate to, but this will soon be your poolside jam regardless. ‘Mine’įormerly leaked as ‘Seeing Double’, ‘Commes Des Garcons’ is upbeat and summery, with a tropical-sounding, skittering beat and lyrics about a man “dating on the side” and having “perfect bitches” on his couch. As Ocean’s multi-layered vocals disperse, the unmistakable silky tones of Sampha kick in as he sings the climax: “What can I do to know you better? / What can I do to show my love?” A brief but no less impactful track. The first proper new Frank Ocean track, ‘Alabama’ opens with whole lines of lyrics overlapping each other as Ocean tells the tale of a dysfunctional family unit. Ocean’s version – which features both James Blake and Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood – occupies a space somewhere between the two other takes, combining the soul of the original and the smoothness of Aaliyah’s.
We’ve actually heard this one before: Frank dropped the rendition on his Tumblr to mark what would have been Aaliyah’s 36th birthday in 2015. ‘At Your Best (You Are Love)’Ī delicate and wistful cover of The Isley Brothers’ 1976 hit, famously later turned into a slow jam by Aaliyah. As with ‘Start’ on predecessor ‘Channel Orange’, Ocean likes to ease listeners into the LP and here he does just that in a very weird way. A very short sample of a robotic voice with a German twang, thought to be taken from an art piece by Turner Prize-winning photographer Wolfgang Tillmans.
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