Frank Ocean – Unsung Sundays

Best of 2016

Nathan Snelgrove — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 18:43:38 +0000

As our tradition is starting to dictate, we couldn’t stop at ten or twenty records though. A round number like that feels arbitrary. We wanted to stop when it felt right. And we think we got the mix just right, more or less.

Parker Millsap

The Very Last Day

Parker Millsap’s sophomore album is filled with some of 2016’s rowdiest country-influenced folk tracks. Telling the story of the end of the world, it sees Parker wrestle with everything from his faith to our culture. Often funny, sometimes irreverent, and full of charm, The Very Last Day isn’t worth missing. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

School of Seven Bells

SVIIB

SVIIB is this year’s most authentic pop record. Born of tragedy, the record is vocalist Alejandra Deheza’s way of saying farewell to her best friend and former bandmate, Benjamin Curtis. Curtis passed away shortly after completing SVIIB in 2012, and Deheza spent time tinkering with it for years after the fact before finally releasing it as School of Seven Bells’ final parting letter.

SVIIB is one of the saddest records I’ve heard all year, but Deheza manages to find optimism in even the worst situations. While the album doesn’t break ground musically the way that some of the other albums on this list do, it’s filled with such emotional catharsis that it’s impossible to ignore. Sad, beautiful, and optimistic, SVIIB is a hidden treasure you need to hear. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Kaytranada

99.9%

Kaytranada is the king of the electronica pack right now. With 99.9%, he’s put almost everybody else in the genre to shame. It’s a tremendous record for anybody who likes bits and bops in their music, but it’s also one of those albums that just indicates a total prodigy is at work behind the scenes. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

A Tribe Called Quest

We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

We Got It From Here isn’t a comeback for ATCQ. It’s a farewell. This is the group’s final album, largely because of the death of Phife earlier in 2016. But more importantly, it’s a reminder of the “service” of ATCQ throughout years. When Kanye guests on “The Killing Season”, it’s a reminder that ATCQ was one of his progenitors, one of the groups that birthed modern hip hop.

It’s not so much that We Got It Here is bringing anything new to the table; rather, it’s reminding us of what used to be. It’s like eating a meal with an old friend who just happens to be in town for a little while. It’s nice to reminisce.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Angel Olsen

My Woman

Angel Olsen’s latest record is her best yet. Olsen is an enigma, and My Woman doesn’t change that. But it does reveal that Olsen is getting better and better at her craft.

If Olsen is anything, she’s a woman who deserves to be celebrated for being a woman. At this point, it feels like she represents women everywhere. She’s the feminist in all of us. Read our full review here.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Kanye West

The Life of Pablo

The Life of Pablo is a good record, but it’s ranking on this list for reasons other than just its music. I believe Kanye has stumbled upon the future of music with The Life of Pablo. I love the way he changed the music after release, often changing the production or verses on certain tracks. (You can read our piece on that here.)

That being said, the album was originally noted for combining hip hop and gospel. But Chance the Rapper ended up doing that much better only a few weeks later with Coloring Book, dethroning The Life of Pablo in the process. What we’re left with is an excellent record that nonetheless proves Kanye isn’t the king of hip hop anymore.

Listen: Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Noname

Telefone

Telefone is one of the best hip hop debuts of recent years. Coming from the same crowd as Raury, Noname is quickly making a name for herself in the scene. She’s a clear example of the Chicago sound throughout her record, and not unlike Raury, wears all her influences clearly on her sleeve.

What makes Telefone work so well is its accessibility Telefone is one of the few albums this year that you could put on at a chill party without anybody raising an eye. Read our full review.

Listen: Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Esperanza Spalding

Emily's D+Evolution

Esperanza Spalding’s second record is a huge turnaround for her. No longer traditional jazz, Esperanza is making jazz-influenced rock. With Evolution, she’s at the forefront of the jazz fusion revival.

But more importantly, she’s making a statement about the validity of traditional jazz. Like when Bob Dylan went electric, she’s saying there isn’t a lot left for her to mine in that genre, and it’s time for her to go on to more exciting pastures. I think D+ Evolution is a brave step in a bold direction, and I’m excited to hear what’s next from Spalding. Read our full review here.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Run the Jewels

Run the Jewels 3

I think most “Best Of” lists were written too late to include RTJ3, which was a late December surprise and one of the best hip hop records of the year. It’s a stronger record than RTJ2, with tracks that are more approachable despite the fact that the band isn’t losing their edge at all.

At this point, it feels like Run the Jewels might be one of the most important hip hop acts in our new political era. They speak their minds and don’t care what you think, and they’re willing to get involved on the ground floor (Killer Mike campaigned for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential campaign). But most importantly, they’re completely fearless. RTJ3 was my favourite surprise album this year. Read our full review here.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Blood Orange

Freetown Sound

Freetown Sound is authentic black music. When I was in university, I took a course on modern music history. The course started with slave music, which was music that the slaves used to sing together while they worked. The rhythm helped them stay on track with their work, and the singing made them feel a sense of solidarity despite their awful working conditions.

Much of Freetown Sound reminds me of that record — not because it has a lot in common with the rhythms of slave music, but because it feels like it’s music that’s meant to create solidarity. It’s not a protest record, but it’s a record that is birthed out of protest. Freetown Sound is an important record, and one that sadly still feels necessary in 2016. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam

I Had a Dream That You Were Mine

In lieu of a new Vampire Weekend record, I Had a Dream That You Were Mine stood in nicely this year. Leithauser’s vocal performance, may be an acquired taste, but Rostam’s music is clearly coming from his work at Vampire Weekend. It’s a beautiful album that I hope begets more work from the duo. They work together so naturally you’d think they’d been playing in a band together for years. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

The Lemon Twigs

Do Hollywood

I think Do Hollywood might be the best debut of the year. The Lemon Twigs are clearly Beatles fans, but their music feels so modern — despite its retro leanings — that it’s impossible to draw the comparison too strongly.

If anything, Do Hollywood is an astonishing record because it proves that there’s still room for unique voices in indie rock. The perfect driving record, Do Hollywood is the sort of album that gives you hope for rock again. And it’s only The Lemon Twigs’ debut! Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Kendrick Lamar

Untitled Unmastered

I mean, seriously, how much does it say about Kendrick Lamar’s clear and obvious talent when his B-sides are better than all of his contemporaries’ real albums this year? The rap star is an unequivocal genius whose voice is only becoming more important.

Untitled Unmastered also succeeded in the difficult measure of following up To Pimp a Butterfly, largely thanks to its non-title and the clear attitude towards each track. Kendrick and Co. know that Untitled Unmastered isn’t going to become anybody’s favourite over TPAB, so they released it without fanfare and removed some of the weight from the difficulty of being a follow-up. The strategy worked. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Radiohead

A Moon Shaped Pool

There’s no way we could avoid putting the latest Radiohead release in the list. But A Moon Shaped Pool is seriously one of the best records of the year. There isn’t a single track that feels like filler, and the band hasn’t lost their edge even as they’ve aged.

The true pride and joy of A Moon Shaped Pool is the inclusion of fan favourite, “True Love Waits”. The song has been a live staple for over a decade, and Radiohead finally made an album they felt it was a good fit for. An impeccable song that truly captures the mood of the whole record. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Leonard Cohen

You Want It Darker

Another one of the greats lost. You Want It Darker will be, for obvious reasons, Cohen’s final record. Even at the end, he continued to wrestle with his spirituality and all his inner demons. Maybe because it was the end for him.

As it is, You Want It Darker is the best Cohen record in a long time. Impeccably produced with beautiful songwriting and an unbelievable performance from Cohen, it’s easily one of the year’s standouts in a year filled with great music.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Solange

A Seat at the Table

What is their left to say about this record that hasn’t already been said? A Seat at the Table is simply tremendous. There’s a reason Solange is on this list, but Beyonce is not: at this point, Solange has overtaken her sister’s music. A Seat at the Table is that good.

There’s nothing more to say. (Frankly, we said it all in our full review.)

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Sturgill Simpson

A Sailor's Guide to Earth

You don’t have to like country to love Sturgill Simpson. I still can’t get over his cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom”. But beyond that single track, what makes A Sailor’s Guide to Earth so special is its dedication to Simpson’s son. From the opening track on, you know that Guide to Earth is going to be something special.

And what Simpson is doing is special: beyond the dedication, and beyond the “hip dad” Nirvana cover, he’s expanding the language of country. He’s proved that the genre still has lots of room to grow. And he’s done all that without going down the pop road that country went down in the ‘90s. This is an alternative country album that any diehard country fan will love, and any non-country listener will find approachable. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Frank Ocean

Blonde

Frank Ocean made us wait too long for this. And while it can be a little long on occasion, it’s hard to be irritated that Ocean gave us more music than we originally wanted. There are so many great tracks here that it’s hard to recommend just a few.

Blonde proves that, no matter how many imitators come along, there’s nobody else who can be like Frank Ocean. Read our full review.

Listen: Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Anderson .Paak

Malibu

Malibu is an album that doesn’t care about genre, position, or what’s hip. .Paak knows none of that matters, because he’s the future. It’s absolutely one of the most exciting records of the year (if not the most exciting), because of the classy ways it blends hip hop and R&B without missing a beat (pun not intended).

There are sixteen tracks on the record, but it doesn’t feel too long or like there’s a lot of filler. This is just Anderson .Paak, making it clear to the world that he’s here to stay and to show us the way. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

Chance the Rapper

Coloring Book

Coloring Book is Chance the Rapper coming into himself. It’s also a pure representation of what the future of hip hop looks like. Kendrick and Chance have come to take over the world, and Coloring Book is Chance’s stake in the ground.

Featuring an incredible roster of guests and a ton of great tracks, Coloring Book feels like the sort of album we all wish Kanye West was still making. With tracks like “How Great”, “Blessings”, and “Same Drugs”, Chance the Rapper is doing something unique with the way he’s blending his gospel roots with hip hop. He’s creating the future. Read our full review.

Listen: Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

David Bowie

Blackstar

Before Bowie passed away, it was clear that Blackstar was easily going to be among the year’s best. Jazzy and unapologetic, Blackstar was Bowie once again experimenting with the forefront of the future of rock music. (We wrote more about that here.)

And then, Bowie suddenly passed away. Unbeknownst to almost everybody in the industry, he had been preparing for his death for a long time. The metaphor of many of Bowie’s songs on the record became much clearer in the weeks after he passed. Blackstar was meant to be a parting gift to his fans. And it’s a beautiful one. Read our full review.

Listen: Amazon / Apple Music / iTunes / Spotify

The post Best of 2016 appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

This Is How Frank Ocean & Streaming Will Save Music

Nathan Snelgrove — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 12:01:57 +0000

On August 19th, 2016, Frank Ocean released Endless with Universal Music. It was a forty-five minute “visual album,” immediately scrutinized by music reporters for twenty-four hours. At that point, almost all coverage of Endless stopped.

The coverage stopped because Frank Ocean released Blonde — his real new album that weekend. He released Blonde independently; Endless fulfilled his contract with Universal Music.

Endless became a footnote in Blonde’s reviews and analysis.

Blonde soared to number one on the Billboard 200, and made Frank Ocean over a million dollars in one week. Consequently, Universal Music lost what could amount to millions of dollars on Endless as Blonde stole all of its thunder.

Sounds like the makings of a great courtroom drama, right?

Universal Music technically has every right to sue Frank Ocean. Most label contracts have a stipulation saying that artists can’t release a new album after their contract expires without waiting for a pre-determined period of time. That means Universal could sue Frank for releasing Blonde so soon. (Although this Billboard article suggests that Universal isn’t considering suing him).

That same Billboard article, though, makes it sound like a shame that this is happening. Perhaps as a result of Frank’s actions, Universal will no longer allow exclusives tied to any streaming services. Take it with a grain of salt, but apparently the first streamed exclusive on the cutting board was a new Gwen Stefani record.) Universal Music, the world’s biggest record label, is once again at odds with Apple Music (and Tidal, and Spotify).

This Isn’t About Labels

Of course, the issue is more complicated than that.

Frank Ocean wasn’t the first artist to have major success with an independently-released, exclusively-streamed record. Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book climbed to number eight on the Billboard 200 this year. It was one of the most successful independent music releases of all time.

These aren’t situations where Apple was just paying for things. There’s intimate creative involvement from the Apple side, down to actually directing videos. Labels are rarely involved.

Drake has also climbed to number one as a streaming exclusive this year with Views . That record is still one of the most-streamed albums on Apple Music, months after its release.

Sean Glass wrote an incredibly eye-opening post about how Apple Music exclusives actually work (he worked at Apple, so he would know). It turns out that Apple has an active creative involvement in every exclusive they have a hand in. The key quote is this: “These aren’t situations where Apple was just paying for things. There’s intimate creative involvement from the Apple side, down to actually directing videos. Labels are rarely involved.”

In these cases, Apple is actually acting as creative producer for the singles, albums, and videos. Glass suggests that Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video (among countless others over the past decade) wouldn’t exist were it not for Apple’s creative involvement, support, and financial backing.

Frank Ocean isn’t the first to independently release an album to mass success. Chance the Rapper, who has always been unsigned, had similar success earlier this year.

This is a shift in the way music is produced. Traditionally, labels fund the projects as money-makers for everybody involved. But that’s changing. Physical album sales are still declining. The money musicians make from merch and touring has become more integral to their income. The album is becoming a portfolio piece for both the streaming companies, like Apple, and the musicians who use albums to sell tickets to shows.

The album is becoming a portfolio piece for both the streaming companies, like Apple, and the musicians who want to sell tickets to shows.

This isn’t a bad thing. Although it’s a giant shift in the way artists make music, it’s more in line with our “music on demand” culture now. Streaming companies make music a service instead of a product, much like Netflix and HBO are in the “storytelling as a service” business.

As artists realize they don’t need the record labels anymore, and streaming companies look for ways to differentiate themselves, an exclusive album becomes more important for everybody involved.

This isn’t about labels. This is about creative freedom.

Music and Television

The television metaphor is apt. Imagine Universal Music, Sony, et. al as conventional networks like ABC and NBC. The conventional networks are concerned with marketability and number-one hits, so their creative involvement places limits on an artist’s creative expression.

Now think of Apple Music and Tidal as HBO and Netflix. Their goal is to create platforms where people want to be, largely thanks to compelling and creative stories that are well-told. Similarly, Apple Music and Tidal want to create platforms where people want to be, largely thanks to compelling and creative music that is well-made and smartly-produced.

Apple Music and Tidal don’t want to limit creative expression; they want to encourage it. Again, similarly to Netflix and HBO, these companies are interested in paying artists whatever it takes to get the highest-quality, most creative work they can come up with.

The channels we listen to music on are changing. Naturally, the distribution and production process is too.

Back to Frank Ocean. Frank Ocean doesn’t need Universal Music. Chance the Rapper doesn’t need a label. For that matter, neither does Drake, Kanye, or Gwen Stefani. Beyoncé certainly doesn’t need one.

So why bother with them?

Think of Apple Music and Tidal as HBO and Netflix.

Frank Ocean has Universal Music in a bit of a panic, as he probably should. The labels originally existed to help distribute and market music. Now that there are more financially interesting and creatively stimulating ways for artists to do that, they don’t need the labels like they used to.

This should have the labels running scared. Their entire business model has an expiration date. Hot tip: Whenever you hear somebody complain about how there are too many “streaming exclusives” on social media or in the news, find out if that person has a relationship with traditional music media or labels. They usually do.

The bottom line? Timed streaming exclusives are good for musicians, which makes them great for us as music lovers.

Frank Ocean and Blonde aren’t the final nail in Universal Music’s coffin. Neither is the inevitable Taylor Swift exclusive. When Adele about-faces and releases her new music as an exclusive digital one day, that’s when the labels are completely dead.

Frank Ocean, along with Chance, Drake, and Kanye, have proved that any musician can do it without a traditional label. And one day, they all will.

The post This Is How Frank Ocean & Streaming Will Save Music appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

Frank Ocean: Blonde

Nathan Snelgrove — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 12:05:15 +0000

I have a theory about Endless. Endless, if you’ve been living under a rock, is a 45-minute video album of Frank Ocean putting together a spiral staircase. It was released, like Blonde was less than forty-eight hours later, as an exclusive on Apple Music. But it was just a teaser.

I think Endless purposely existed as a filler record to get Frank Ocean out of his contract so he could independently release Blonde. I think Endless is the mostly-empty commercial counterpart to the emotionally involved and far better record, Blonde.

There is so much to say about Blonde. Even its name bears discussion: at the last minute, the name was changed from Boys Don’t Cry, prompting much confusion about whether the title is spelled “Blonde” or “Blond” and launching the Internet into rife speculation. The answer is simple: it doesn’t matter how you spell it, because Frank doesn’t seem to care, and the name was changed because a certain portion of the population wouldn’t understand that Boys Don’t Cry was a lie.

If anything, Blonde is a love letter to empathetic people. It suggests that boys do cry, that the appropriate response to tragedy is to weep and to mourn, and that we’ve lost something with all of our male posturing. Many musicians have said this in their music, but Frank lives this.

On “Nikes”, a track that couldn’t be considered a protest song even by the staunchest abusers of the term, Frank mourns Travyon’s murder as a black man. Mourns is the appropriate record. “Nikes” sets the bar for the rest of the record to come: almost completely beat-less, with a focus on Frank’s voice, encouraging us to get better at living with each other.

Unlike Kendrick, and perhaps unlike Beyoncé, Frank Ocean isn’t writing protest songs about blackness. He’s writing sad songs about losing our humanity. He’s writing music about empathy.

As good as the music is, that’s what I missed the most about Frank’s musical silence over the past four years. I missed his empathetic perspective.

On “Futura Free”, Frank Ocean spends the last half of the track talking to people on the street. The first half of the song is beautiful, Frank’s voice clearly having grown in the past four years. But in the last four minutes, Frank goes vocal and asks people on the streets about their lives.

For most musicians, moments like that would be throwaways. They’d be there to engineer an emotional response. But with Frank, it’s somehow clear how much he loves people. How much empathy he has for their stories.

That seems to be the driving momentum throughout Frank’s new record: there’s a sadness to it that strikes a chord in so many of us. Every track that feels like it’s about Frank — like “Solo” or the sensational “Self Control” (my favourite track on the record) — also feels like it’s about all of us.

I watched a brief, thoughtful exchange on Twitter yesterday between people talking about the melancholic moods that Frank’s music inspires in them. And it fascinated me that every metaphor described a similar feeling: loneliness in a crowd, that of invisibility. My favourite description was “a beach party in the winter.”

It’s all emblematic of the sensational control Frank has over the listener. Blonde is perfectly paced, with no track that could justifiably be removed — even the vocal interludes have a purpose, although they may be less infinitely re-playable than the more vocally-driven tracks.

Channel ORANGE was a spectacular album, but on Blonde, Frank Ocean has mastered his craft as a songwriter and performer. He’s writing music so far above his peers that it defies genre classification. It’s emotionally charged, powerful music that confronts its listeners with the empathy of its performer. It’s quietly transformative. The message is clear.

Perhaps boys should cry. And maybe we’d be better off if they did.

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