donatlemaymusicopinions-blog

[donatlemaymusicopinions-blog]

Why Frank Ocean’s ‘Endless’ Deserves to be Revisited

On August 19, 2016, Frank Ocean came out of his 4 year slumber to drop ‘Endless’, a visual, abstract, ambient album filled with quick shifts in mood, beautiful ballads, interludes, and everything in between. The very next day, he dropped his critically acclaimed ‘Blonde’ and it immediately overshadowed any presence Endless had in the public eye, pushing it to the sidelines to be forgotten by many, which is a shame really, as it’s an incredible album.

i-D’s Moya Lothian-McLean wrote about this very thing in this article. She called it “raw, unpolished and fluid to the extreme.” I agree completely. It’s to the record’s benefit as the unpolished nature of the album allows Frank to be more experimental with his sound. She also addressed this in the article, noting, “the record saw him push unexpectedly past the expectations we had of what ‘Frank Ocean’ should sound like.” As a result, this album sounded unlike anything he made before, featuring extremely short tracks that transitioned between each other seamlessly, while also drastically changing the mood and sonic palette of each song. It’s a challenging listen but as a complete experience, it’s something unique and very much incredible.

Of course, while it’s a great listen as a whole album, there are of course very notable tracks that stand on their own. Lets dive into a couple of Moya’s picks; ‘Mitsubishi Sony’, and ‘Higgs’. There’s a stark contrast between these 2 tracks: one is an uptempo electronically produced pop song about sex and his current lifestyle, while the other is a slow acoustic ballad about a doomed love with someone he had it too good with. My personal favorite is ‘Rushes’, a beautifully emotional song about the rush of love, mixed with metaphors which play off the act of rushing. The fact that the album is so sonic-ally diverse while staying cohesive makes it a great listen overall, and makes it all the more impressive once you consider Frank’s typical r&b ballad style of music. It really displays the level of experimentation he worked with.

Overall, I agree with the above mentioned article completely. Endless doesn’t get the recognition it deserves for many reasons, but that shouldn’t be the case as it offers a diverse but cohesive sound, and pushes the boundaries of music in the process.

[donatlemaymusicopinions-blog]

Why Travis Scott’s ‘Rodeo’ is a Classic

I’ve listened to so much music throughout my life that its hard to pin down many albums that stand out to me as much as Travis Scott’s ‘Rodeo’, and this article perfectly represents my opinion on this album. Lets break down this article and find out what makes this album a classic to me and many others.

For starters, the track list is front to back heat, vibes, and everything in between. Remy Broun, the writer of this article, details certain tracks that really stood out to them, such as “Pornography” and “90210″ for head bopping, and “Oh My Dis Side” and “Maria I’m Drunk” for pure vibes, these are all great picks.

Personally, my favourite tracks are easily “Oh My Dis Side” and “Ok Alright”, which is only on the deluxe version of the album. “Oh My Dis Side” is a two sided track; the first half is a druggy, amped up trap banger, and then it switches to a gorgeous piano g-funk ballad about his upbringing and his outlook on those in his life. “Ok Alright” has a similar track structure, it starts off as a banger but switches into a slow, psychedelic vibe that makes for great smoking music. And these are just my favourites, the track list is filled with bangers, psychedelic cuts, ballads, and everything in between. Its just so thematic and well done, and really makes for an absolute journey of an album.

Later on in the article they detail what makes ‘Rodeo’ stand out, claiming that it was “An attempt at making an album around a raw, druggy Houston sound.” and that it came out at a perfect time with great atmosphere. I couldn’t agree more. Travis made huge waves with this album as it was oozing with atmosphere and a sound that was hardly explored before the creation of this album. The timing was perfect and was aided by his many guest features and experimental risks throughout, it embedded itself into peoples minds and stuck around for a long time, and to this day has been considered a timeless classic by many, bridging the gap between trap and other genres of music.

In conclusion, I agree with this article’s points about why Rodeo is a classic album. The track list is filled with great tracks, the atmosphere was unique and refreshing, the sounds were cutting edge and the timing was perfect, this created a perfect storm, making Rodeo a classic album that stands out as one of the best this decade has ever heard.