Facebook Story is another transition track that, like be yourself, is a story over some music. The track is a French-accented man talking about how crazy social media has made people and a relationship that ended only because of how important Facebook has become to people. This leads into Close to You, a short track that is actually a cover of a cover. The original is by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and was covered by Stevie Wonder. Frank Ocean cover’s Stevie Wonder’s version. Again its a story of an ex and longing for someone. We then go to White Ferrari, a ‘full’ track with very beautiful vocals and harmonies. Ocean harmonizes with himself a lot throughout the album but this song has some of the stronger harmonies over a demo-sounding acoustic guitar. The track relies heavily on Frank Ocean’s vocals; or perhaps it is better to say that the instrumentality of the song keeps from holding back the vocals. It’s a beautiful love song about young love and can definitely have an affect on anyone from 13 to 30. Ocean, in the song, is young and in love with someone who does not feel the same or someone who he is not actively dating.
Seigfried is the third to last song on the album and is a super strong track, as is every other track on this album. (We’re making the home stretch here guys!!) On this album, Ocean showed, time and time again, that he doesn’t need elaborate beats in order to make a successful track and Seigfried is another example of this. It features spacey guitar with a few strings and that’s it. There are no drums and no bass, it’s just a simple strings track. The beat matches well with his soothing vocals. Ocean structures it so that the track can carry the emotion that he wants to convey. For example, towards the end, there is a section of repeating lyrics, “I’d do anything for you,” in which he sings the ‘anything’ in falsetto to make it softer because he’s using it in a context of love and care. The lyrics discuss both love and home life as he shifts the verses fro talking about his partner, to talking about bringing in the homeless to help them and then back to his partner. The verses discuss the conflicts that he faces within in regards to love and his lifestyle.
The album the continues into Godspeed, a beautiful track with a gospel feel to it. From the lyrics to the music, you can feel the gospel influence. This is furthered by Kim Burell’s appearance on the track, as she finished the song. Burell has been regarded as one of the greatest gospel singers of all time, so her presence on this track is no surprise. The lyrics are the encouragement towards someone, telling them that they are now free to do as they please and that they can explore the world on their own but that they should know that there will be obstacles. However, with these obstacles, they will always have a home and a place to come back to with Ocean. It really is one of the most beautiful tracks on the album.
The final track, and ending to this review, is Futura Free. This track is the perfect ending as it somewhat recaps everything the album went through, as well as what Ocean’s life has been like. He talks about his minimum wage job a burger joint and compares it to now. Ocean is appreciative of everything he has and how much success he has gotten. He thanks the fans for everything and even says “I should be paying them,” showing how much he appreciates the fans. He goes on to talk about long friendships he’s had with people that have been there since the beginning, like Tyler, the Creator. The track is very long, with the first half being frank singing with a higher pitched effect over the track, like Nikes had, over a slow piano/keyboard track. Then its goes into an interview being done on Frank Ocean’s younger brother, Ryan and the pro skater Sage Elsesser. The way that the interview is cut up makes it very artistic in that it becomes abstract. They talk about superpowers and the way in which they think. Some of the answer being very deep in thought and substance. The interview comes in an existential way for what is an existential album. The album of the year. A masterpiece. An avant-garde work of art. Frank Ocean has become a legend.