Saturday, 29 November 2014

Listen to Frank Ocean's underwhelming new song in two years ‘Memrise’...

Taking to his Tumblr yesterday, Frank Ocean released a brand new song after a two-year hiatus. 

The stripped down 'Memrise,' has lyrics letting a lover know just how he imagines them. "I could fuck you all night long, from a memory alone,” he sings in a spoken word, staccato delivery. The production is very nostalgic with a bluesy, organic chill to it but this new tune is simply lackluster.

The guitar strings adds a beautiful melody, but other than that, I don't have much good to say about the song. The choppy rapping wasn't good at all and the lyrics are far too blunt (lyrical metaphors, subtlety and innuendo was always a gifted art form of his). Where is his signature storytelling? 

The audio sounds rough, unfinished and interlude-ish, so this could be an unmastered demo. But even in demo form, we can often tell when a song still slays, and this one... doesn't. If this is any indication of the direction of his upcoming album, he can keep it. He has reportedly enlisted Hit-Boy and Rodney Jerkins for the follow-up to 2012's 'channel ORANGE.' Frequent collaborators Happy Perez, Charlie Gambetta, and Kevin Ristro have also worked on the album.

Thoughts?