| The Weeknd – The Zone Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| like a sort of "sleeping with ghosts"; Frank Ocean's novacane or hammock's departure songs. A lucid venture into past lovers through the pursuit of sensual pleasures. Love how that steady bass line carries the song into a hypnotic rhythm similar to massive attack. It's the bass that makes it very sexy, but the lyrics, vocals and guitar that turns it into a haunting, fragile tune. The intimacy belies the sexuality of the song. He speaks with tenderness like he would with a lover, yet there is also that carnality and nihilistic promiscuity. Slipping into his own impulses, dreams, the past... the down beat vibe is like him falling further and further into himself, into whoever he's with... losing himself and slipping in and out of consciousness... he's running and falling, remembering.. | |
| Frank Ocean – Lost Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
This album contains a lot of duality... without looking at the tracklisting and just this song lyrically, I "guessed" that this would be on the album right after pyramids. It is indeed the song straight after pyramids. I'll talk about the conceptual nature of the album after, but I think there's logic to Franks song progression even tho it's not quite linear. It's comparable to Lana Del Ray's "born to die" thematically and structure wise IMO. Lost to me, almost can fit into a trilogy of songs: Pyramids, Lost, Novacane. All of the songs fit in between the gaps and spaces between these, but these are the keystones in his work. He's exploring the same key themes as a person and an artist but very differently in each work. You know he stumbled on themes with both mystery and profoundness when he can play with styles, characters and each time produce something that can stand on its own, but also has integrity within the context of his work. Frank changes the perspective of the narrator using the chorus and verses interchangeably. I love the layers of the album, musically, but his strengths are in the narrative and concept. Usually the first things I notice are musical elements, but the content and how it's woven very skillfully through the form is what I really pay attention to. I think part of his narrative voice is used to explore identity via pulling apart the assumptions of masculinity, personhood, class, gender, race, sex. Frank is not the many narrators of the stor(ies), he's the narrator of the narrators and the guy pulling the strings of the characters within the stories. I love how personal it is without losing it's narrative elements. This is a sign of a gifted story teller. The undercurrent of the albums narrative is that it is like a fragmented memory, a suburban dream. He samples sounds... there is a lot of pop culture aural imagery and soundbites. Like there's this "classic" sound, both toy-ish and childish yet unadulturated. You get the feel of a guy who grew up with an artistic sensibility in the 90s.. an era of both bubblegum pop as well as more exposure to "adult ideas" and cynicism about relationships than ever. It sounds like a mixtape, but it feels like he's flicking the switch between a freeze frame of scenes... like the story is progressing across different snap shots and you zoom into the scene, then flick the switch and move onto another scene. They may look like different "players" but the movement in each scene (song) is carrying through a story. Consequently, there is something very cinematic about the album and especially about this song. It could almost be a film. The characterisation of the hooker-pimp relationship in pyramids goes further here.. relationships are a heavy theme in his work, much like a classic Hollywood film. However, it's not a 30s era exploration of relationships or identity by any stretch of the imagination. This as well as pyramids reminds me of revolutionary road... like trying to escape the same destiny as everyone else, only served to shackle you in another bind. The futility of running and feeling trapped that seems to enter into all relationships but mainly when explicit give and take is involved... the characterisation in this song makes me wonder whether Frank is going into aspects of race and gender as well.. but who knows. Love the subtlety. |
|
| SBTRKT – Trials of the Past Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
Strong sense of imagery in this song, great lyrics. The harmonies add to the "haunted" feel. The chorus (from "'the ghoulish enemies' to 'ghost of christmas past') is like a "cry" out to above, the verses setting up the story of the past and loss. After he establishes the setting and tone, he cries out above. Sensing the ghosts stir up internally and revisit him, possibly at night. "So i've got to sit up for my heart to come down" is like he's having a terrible nightmare, panic, loss, something unfinished that's come to revisit him. But more than that... they're here to stay. "And you can't break the chasing ghosts, So much so, when they come back but never ask, At your side, at your soul" like not only have the ghosts revisited them, but he has joined them. |
|
| Frank Ocean – Pyramids Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I feel that this song is very archetypal, especially the use of alluding to Egyptian and African female "goddesses".. almost like it's alluding to the loss of life in all of us, that comes with the destruction of the sacred... | |
| Frank Ocean – Pyramids Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
"What good is a jewel that ain't still precious?" "It has killed Cleopatra" "But your love ain't free no more" I feel it is the loss of sacredness, perhaps the sacredness of the "feminine" (not to be confused with women, but the feminine symbolically); mystery, sacredness itself, creation, beauty, wisdom, love... |
|
| Frank Ocean – Swim Good Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
The song is interesting because cars are usually vehicles of independence, there are allusions to swimming, diving, roaming, kicking of shoes... maybe he's no longer running but in the process of figuring out what you do after you stop running. He moves from road analogies, to water... maybe he's not "running" when he enters the water, but confronting his own emotionality, literally diving into it. Diving into his pain, his real pain. Taking off the layers of death around him, and allowing himself to be impacted by real life. |
|
| Frank Ocean – Swim Good Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
It seems to me that he's talking about a metaphorical death, being shackled by a suit of mourning. Is it an ending or a new beginning? the ambiguity alludes to both I feel. You can't swim with a suit on. You can't continue to drive carrying that level of hidden hurt. You can feel the tone of running, trying to run so fast that you break through the sound/light barrier into another dimension, into another self, another state of being. Everything in the past caught up, he realised how he felt about his losses. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.