It works, just as long as you dispel your hopes for another proper team-up between the pair. If you thought Beyoncé’s feature earlier on was wasteful then you’re going to find this Kendrick one pretty pointless altogether, as the rapper chimes in to add emphasis to the odd word here and there, like “smoke” and “haze”. “We don’t gotta be solo,” he croons to an organ-backdrop reminiscent of ‘Bad Religion’, elongating the latter word so it sounds more like “so low”.
Gone are the “big full breasts” and “buttercream silk shirts” and in their place are the markings of a drugged-up haze and its subsequent comedown, as Ocean fails to heed his mother’s advice and tries not to end the night alone. If ‘Lost’ depicted the hedonism of life on the road then ‘Solo’ is its jaded aftermath. Be yourself and know that that’s good enough,” she says, before ringing off with: “This is mom, call me, bye”. “Many college students have gone to college and gotten hooked on drugs, marijuana, and alcohol. This short skit – similar to ‘Channel Orange’s ‘Not Just Money‘ – sees Frank’s mother (of embarrassing her kids in Instagram videos fame) offering some maternal advice via a voicemail message. Imagine having Beyoncé on your track and not only managing to not be completely upstaged but deciding to not even utilise her properly. Beyonce provides backing vocals for the closing verse but her presence is barely noticeable, which says a lot about Ocean’s self-confidence with this project. ‘Pink + White’ flows like a summer’s breeze, having an almost tropical feel much like ‘Sweet Life’ from ‘Channel Orange’, this time depicting a more realistic outlook on life. At its climax, Ocean’s falsetto begins to crackle as feedback cuts through, like a metaphor for the way he’s feeling. Unlike much of the instrumental-heavy taster album ‘Endless’, this track sees Ocean’s vocals clean-cut and coming to the fore as he spills his heart about “all the things I didn’t mean to say / I didn’t mean to do”. “I thought that I was dreaming when you said you love me,” he sings over a sparse backdrop. Originally debuted live in Munich during 2013 (albeit as an early draft), ‘Ivy’ sees Frank mull over a failed relationship.
In our review of the track, we wrote that it shows Ocean’s “adeptness at making pop music with a difference”, further labelling it as the best thing the singer has released since ‘Channel Orange”s central tour-de-force ‘Pyramids’. It’s only been a day but many fans will already regard it as classic Frank. The album’s lead single, released 24 hours before the new album followed.
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