Frank Ocean - Endless ALBUM REVIEW (SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT)

-
For those that don’t keep track, this post is my 100th review I’ve done since starting this back in April. I wanna thank each and every person that has looked at my writing and my opinions that I’ve never really been able to share outside of just talking with friends. I also have a pretty cool announcement to make: I will be starting an interview series later this year, with many different kinds of people. There’s no set schedule for these interviews, but they’re going to be existing on this page at some point. The first edition will be with indie-rock artist Garrett Case, and I’m currently in the planning stages of working out an interview with up-and-coming artist Ashnikko in promotion for her upcoming mixtape Demidevil. The Ashnikko interview is not confirmed to be happening yet, and I’ll keep all of you updated on that! Now, onto the review!

Frank Ocean has always had a special place in my heart. While I don’t think Frank Ocean has a so-called ‘perfect’ album, he’s a pretty great artist. Now, I’ve already reviewed blond, so I decided to take a look at an often-overlooked album in his discography, Endless. This was a visual album that was released one day before blond and, like blond at first, was exclusive to Apple Music for a while. Endless eventually got an official CD and vinyl release two years after release, and since I got the vinyl, I decided to take a spin and review it for you guys. Let’s get right into the review!

Endless is an R&B album with pop, hip-hop, and ambient influences. This was originally the album that completed his contract with Def Jam, then went to release blond and that was the big star of the show. Endless legitimately has one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard, and it’s the first overall song on the album that isn’t the intro. It’s a new cover of “At Your Best (You Are Love)” by The Isley Brothers, and OH MY GOD. It’s just a perfect song, it’ll forever give me chills and honestly be one of my favorite songs of all time. The lyrics here aren’t anything to gawk at, but that isn’t the main attraction here. It’s the vibe, the ambient droning of nearly every song. It’s the vignettes that are catchy as hell but are begging to continue. The lyrics are fun, Frank’s performance is absolutely haunting, and it’s one of the most consistent albums I’ve heard ever.

That last sentence pretty much sums up how I feel about Endless. It’s a bona-fide masterpiece, and if I’m being honest, I prefer this over blond mainly because of “At Your Best.” It’s a beautiful beautiful album and will forever stun me every time I give it a spin.


10/10


Stream Endless here

Apple Music

YouTube Music



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lil Yachty - Let’s Start Here. ALBUM REVIEW

-
Image
I gotta keep holding to my promises about reviewing. I always love it when an artist takes a risk with their material. Whether or not it works out, I usually admire the risk and appreciate the fact that any artist can do something out of their comfort zone. Either way, the artist in question today is Lil Yachty, a rapper that has basically become a joke the longer his career’s gone on. However, going into a new genre out of left field isn’t totally new to rap. Childish Gambino jumping into the world of neo-soul with Awaken, My Love! , along with later projects from Mac Miller and Tyler, the Creator having more jazz influences, have proven that turning to a new genre for new ideas has worked out pretty well. Yachty, however, has turned to psychedelic rock in the vein of Tame Impala for this new album, Let’s Start Here. to mark the new chapter of his career. Let’s get into it. Having stuck around with Yachty during the rough patches, I can easily say that Let’s Start Here. is his best ...
Read more

Kendrick Lamar - GNX ALBUM REVIEW

-
Image
Woah, a new review? After this long? Yeah, sure. Why not? I got some plans in the works to keep this active in some form, and I’ll show off some more details in the post after this! What timing for an album to end up bringing this little site back, even if it’s just for a little bit of time. The last post on here was last June, and a lot has happened in my life since then, whether it’s in music or my personal life. Arguably, the biggest moment in music of the year was the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which exploded just before this summer with “Like That,” a song off of the first of two Future and Metro Boomin’ albums from this year, WE DON’T TRUST YOU . I don’t need to go into just how massive this beef was (and in still is in some ways), but if you need one major takeaway, I’ll say this: One of the biggest hits of the year, regardless of genre, essentially boiled down to Kendrick calling Drake a pedophile for four-and-a-half minutes. “Not Like Us,” a song where one of the m...
Read more

Porter Robinson - Nurture ALBUM REVIEW

-
Image
I wanna just lay in a field of grass, but I’m allergic to pollen :( I’ve always had a very strange relationship with electronic music. The bad music I’ve heard in the genre has been some of the worst music I’ve ever heard, and the good stuff is some of the greatest music I’ve ever heard. For some context, we have artists like The Chainsmokers on one end, and Daft Punk on the other. There are some subgenres in here too that work. Electropop is one of them, being an obvious fusion of pop and electronic music. In the little community of the AOTY website, the users there have been hyped as hell for this Porter Robinson album, Nurture . It’s apparently his first in seven years, and I’ve only heard one single from it, titled “Musician.” While it wasn’t the best electropop song I’ve heard, it’s certainly an interesting sound that I think can work pretty well. So, with how anticipated it is in the AOTY community, I figured I should take a listen and see what all the fuss is about. Let’s get in...
Read more