FRANK OCEAN | Nostalgia/Ultra

By David D. Robbins Jr. | Their Bated Breath
Frank Ocean “Nostalgia/Ultra”
Artwork by David D. Robbins Jr. uses photo by Julian Berman

Frank Ocean has a lot of pent-up frustration at how major record labels work, as many musicians do. His free, self-released “Nostalgia/Ultra” is proving to be one of those joys of the internet, getting passed around like a spliff, without any help from his label Island Def Jam. It seems all Ocean ever wanted was to make music, sign a contract and perhaps be able to afford his dream car, the orange BMW that graces his album cover. At least he can rest assured his music is being heard and lauded. “Nostalgia/Ultra” is a record written by a guy who loves all kinds of music. His brand of contemporary R&B isn’t so easily pigeon-holed, and maybe that’s a reason why his label didn’t know what to do with him.

The record opens with a 22-second audio clip of someone rewinding, stopping and forwarding a cassette tape. It’s an old-school trope he carries on in interludes throughout the album. The first true track, “Strawberry Swing”, finds Ocean singing over Coldplay’s track of the same name, and giving it a twist. He takes the singular-focused, lovelorn, and wide-eyed optimism of the original and turns it into a fond farewell — content with the knowledge he has loved in a world bent on self destruction. Ocean also appropriates MGMT’s “Electric Feel”, the Eagles’ “Hotel California” and segment of Radiohead’s “Optimistic” — the latter used to make a point about conventional taste. During his interlude, “Bitches Talkin'”, he tries playing Radiohead (again a tape deck can be heard in the background) for a few of his girlfriends before they ask him if he’s got some Jodeci: “All bitches want is Jodeci, what the fuck? Whatever.” Click. Tape deck stops. Obviously, this little skit exists to make a point. It’s not just a missive about popular music and artistic integrity, but a slight jab too at the closed-minded musical tastes of his own culture of African-Americans, dismissing Radiohead as a strange bunch of white boys playing weirdo rock music.

One of the most inventive tracks, “Novacane”, is about a ridiculous tryst with a porn actress wannabe-dentist he meets at Coachella, who just so happens to have spiked his joint with a little something special. He wakes up at her place, and the scene turns into an orgy of women, cameras and cocaine. Ocean references Stanley Kubrick’s film “Eyes Wide Shut”: “Bed full of women /Flip on a tripod / Little red light on shooting / I’m feeling like Stanley Kubrick / This is some visionary shit / Been tryna film pleasure with my eyes wide shut.” That’s actually his second appropriation from the famous filmmaker’s movie. Underneath the entire track, “Lovecrimes”, you can hear Nicole Kidman’s monologue from the “getting high” scene where Alice Harford and her husband exchange inebriated, insecure and vindictive ideas about their extra-marital urges. One of the best, and more traditional R&B tracks, “We All Try”, is Ocean’s anti-original sin track. He declares, “I still believe in man / A wise one asked me why / ‘Cuz I just don’t believe we’re wicked / I know that we sin but I do believe we try / We all try.” At heart, Ocean is a bit of a romantic, creating a remake of the David Bowie-influenced and sincerely written “There Will Be Tears” (2008) by Mr. Hudson. In his hands it’s an ode to sadness about missing his real-life deadbeat dad. “Nostalgia/Ultra” is a complex, often-beautiful 14-track offering to everything major studios seem to despise — creativity, uniqueness, genre-mixing, contradiction, and flights of honesty.

Frank Ocean “We All Try”