With Channel Orange Frank Ocean has proven himself as one of the most significant artists in popular music today his next effort will definitely have the potential to be a genre classic. Beyond his powerful performance on these ballads, Ocean crafts some excellent pop singles in "Lost" (almost reminiscent of RJD2's Colossus in feel) and the funk-driven, fill-heavy "Monks" with some seriously excellent drums. "Bad Religion" steals a bit of the Andre 3000-featured "Pink Matter"s thunder, but Benjamin's verse follows an equally inspired Ocean crooning over a subdued guitar lick and string crescendo. "But boy you need prayer", I guess it couldn't hurt me He said "Allahu akbar", I told him don't curse me Specifically, he foreswears love as self-inflicted pain: Most of all, "Bad Religion" steals the show here as a piercing, veracious confessional come therapy session. Ocean's ability to emote within the confines of a ballad without making it saccharine or cheesy is nearly unparalleled by any of his contemporaries (besides Abel Tesfaye of course) every single one on Channel Orange is stirring. But the real charm of Frank Ocean lies within his story telling, and he's at his absolute best when expounding tales of love lost, love wanted, and melancholy - "A tornado flew around my room before you came / Excuse the mess it made, it usually doesn't rain / In Southern California much, like Arizona / My eyes don't shed tears, but boy, they pour when / I'm thinking 'bout you". "Super Rich Kids" re-introduces fellow Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt and his more refined/ mature rapping over a slowly evolving piano chord progression, horns, and finally synth arpeggios close out a very laid back hip-hop track (the follow-up to EARL should be excellent).Īfter the introductory PSX start-screen sample, "Thinkin Bout You" puts forth the framework of most of the record - chilled out R&B crooning, some falsetto here and there, amidst a hip-hop backdrop augmented by any given genre.
#Pyramids frank ocean chords full#
As it turns out (not so surprisingly), an album of original Frank Ocean tunes is full of mostly good ideas with respect to production, pulling from a spectrum of popular modern and classic influences - keyboard funk, hip-hop, indie-rock, and electro-pop themed beats are here in full force, yet they are used effectively within the "constraints" of R&B without any singular genre taking over the record. Maybe all of Channel Orange isn't exactly as amazing as "Pyramids", but it mostly delivers on its promises set forth as well as potential apparent within last year's mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra (if "American Wedding" didn't make you shed a tear, you don't have a heart). Very few R&B songs are deserving of the descriptor "epic", but this is one of the flawless few, with good reason igniting Frank Ocean's hype train to near legendary levels. A profound counterpoint to The Weeknd's 2011 launching point in "House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls", it is truly a modern soul opus (in either sense of the word) with its Dam-Funk-esque, minor funk jam imploding into chilled out electro-soul and an airy closing guitar solo courtesy of John Mayer. In retrospect, releasing "Pyramids" as the lead single from Channel Orange was a well-calculated, brilliant decision. Review Summary: A one-man cult and cyanide in my styrofoam cup
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