walking upstream…
Frank Ocean
photo: andras ladocsi · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Frank Ocean
sourcesWikipedia
Christopher Breaux grew up between New Orleans and New Orleans East before Hurricane Katrina pushed his family to Los Angeles, where he ghostwrote for other artists and fell in with the Odd Future collective before releasing the mixtape nostalgia, ULTRA. under the name Frank Ocean. Channel Orange and Blonde reimagined R&B as long-form, novelistic songwriting — hazy, non-linear, allergic to the hook-chorus-hook formula — while his falsetto and plainspoken lyricism turned confession into a genre of its own. He has released music sparingly and on his own terms ever since, becoming one of the most influential and closely studied songwriters of his generation without ever quite behaving like a pop star.
the sound in question
2012
Thinkin Bout YouFrank Ocean
walk the tributaries ↓
Aaliyah1990s · R&B / Pop / Hip hop
Critics have long heard Aaliyah's soft, breathy quaver as a touchstone for Ocean's own hushed vocal delivery, and he made the connection explicit by covering her 'At Your Best (You Are Love)' — a song she herself had covered from the Isley Brothers — on his 2016 visual album Endless.
listen: upstream & here
1994
At Your Best (You Are Love)Aaliyah
2016
At Your Best (You Are Love)Frank Ocean
listen forAaliyah's original take on 'At Your Best (You Are Love)' is understated and close-mic'd, every syllable held gently; Ocean's own version keeps that same unhurried intimacy but strips the arrangement down even further, letting the song's ache carry the track almost unaccompanied.
Stevie Wonder1970s · Soul / Funk / R&B
Ocean has named Stevie Wonder's rendition of 'Close to You' among his all-time favorite songs, and Wonder's harmonic and melodic sense — chords that resolve in unexpected places, melodies that hover between speech and song — sits underneath Ocean's own piano-and-voice writing.
listen: upstream & here
1970
Close to YouStevie Wonder
2016
GodspeedFrank Ocean
listen forPlay Wonder's tender, talk-box-inflected 'Close to You' and then Ocean's 'Godspeed' back to back — both strip everything down to a single held vocal over spare keys, patient and unhurried in a way most pop ballads aren't willing to be.
Prince1980s · Funk / Pop / R&B / Rock
Ocean has said Prince's 'When You Were Mine' sits alongside Wonder's 'Close to You' on his personal list of favorite songs ever recorded, and critics have heard Prince's genre-blurring, falsetto-heavy vocal persona — the Camille alter ego especially — in Ocean's own pitched and layered voice on Blonde.
listen: upstream & here
1980
When You Were MinePrince
2012
Pink MatterFrank Ocean
listen forCue up Prince's plainspoken, new-wave-tinged 'When You Were Mine' and then Ocean's 'Pink Matter' — both let a thin, almost conversational falsetto float over a spacious, genre-agnostic arrangement rather than belting toward a big radio chorus.