Ocean grew up fatherless too, according to his wrenching revamp of Mr. "Fuck a deal, I just want my father's e-mail so I can tell him how much I hate him in detail," seethes crew leader Tyler, the Creator on the title track of his album Bastard. And his maturity is apparent not only in his vastly more laid-back style but also in how he deals with the underlying sense of abandonment and rejection that ignites much of Odd Future's bloody, cuss-laden vengeance. "I'ma try to swim from something bigger than me." He lightens up on the self-reflexive pop winner "Songs for Women" and the MGMT-sampling Garden of Eden fuck ode "Nature Feels", but, no matter the mood, this songwriter is always quick to add fine particulars that make his songs his songs.Īt 23, Ocean is a few years older than his mostly-teenage friends in Odd Future. "I'm about to drive in the ocean," he sings, heart-battered.
Like on brooding highlight "Swim Good", where he steers his Lincoln Town Car straight into California's crashing waves. The shout outs to Kubrick's mysterious and lusty final masterpiece aren't just artsy braggadocio- they make sense within Ocean's trickily complex world, too. And if that sounds kind of ridiculous, that's probably the point the atmospheric track almost reads like a knowing parody of Kid Cudi's fame-as-drug diatribes. The film is once again referenced on the nightmarish, Stewart-produced "Novacane", which has Ocean losing his senses in the company of a wannabe dentist/porn star he met at Coachella. Meanwhile, Nicole Kidman's adulterous bedroom soliloquy from Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut can be heard underneath the murderous "Lovecrimes", adding a sense of manic dread. On the brief segue "Bitches Talkin'", a loving snippet of Radiohead's "Optimistic" is heard while Ocean sincerely laments how "all bitches want is Jodeci, what the fuck?"- not exactly the type of sentiment you'd expect to hear on any sort of R&B album. The impressionistic, fingerprint details don't stop there. The old-school touch lends Nostalgia, Ultra the feel of a personal, friend-to-friend mixtape rather than one made by a name-dropping hip-hop DJ. The record is held together by tiny interludes named after 1990s video games in which the unmistakable sounds of a cassette player rewinding, fast-forwarding, and stopping are heard. The cover- showing a bright orange 1980s BMW (Ocean's "dream car") hidden in plain sight amidst lush greenery- is perfectly indicative of what's inside. But there's also a heady surreality surrounding Nostalgia, Ultra that makes it unique. There are distinct elements of Drake's melancholic paranoia and The-Dream's high melodrama, too. Ocean's experience within the major-label hit machine comes through- his casually hook-y voice is akin to Usher or Jamie Foxx's, and at least three of the album's songs could (and should) slot in comfortably on a R&B or even Top 40 radio station near you any day now. Nostalgia, Ultra finds Ocean singing over a mix of original pop-leaning R&B beats courtesy of big-ticket producers like Tricky Stewart (Rihanna's "Umbrella", Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)") and Midi Mafia (50 Cent's "21 Questions", Justin Bieber's "Down to Earth") as well as some eclectic remakes of songs including Coldplay's underrated 2009 single "Strawberry Swing", MGMT's "Electric Feel", and, most surprisingly, the Eagles' "Hotel California". The mini-rant sums up this singer's demeanor well- openly passionate and heartfelt, but also attractively off-center and humble. fuck Def Jam & any company that goes the length of signing a kid with dreams & talent w/ no intention of following through. guess its my fault for trusting my dumbass lawyer and signing my career over to a failing company.
that's why you see no label logo on the artwork that I DID. Venting about his decision to drop the record his own way, he took to Twitter on March 1: "i.
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