Four years of anticipation came, at least in part, to an end yesterday night as Frank Ocean released his visual album Endless through Apple Music - the apparent precursor to an LP proper to come later this weekend. The video, set in the same white-washed warehouse where Frank Ocean broadcasted his website's livestream last week, is roughly 45-minutes long and plays new material behind black-and-white visuals of Ocean constructing a staircase. Transverso took to pen and pad to record some initial thoughts on Endless:
"Device Control"
- We return to the warehouse seen in Frank Ocean's live stream; an imposing, stoic voice speaks.
"At Your Best (You Are Love) (Isley Brothers cover)"
- Two impressions of Frank Ocean work away on workbenches, cutting wood on saws.
- The song playing seems to be the studio version of the Isley Brothers/Aaliyah cover Frank Ocean released the day after Aaliyah's birthday last year.
- A third Frank Ocean figure emerges.
- The traditional R&B lyrics of the song, paired with the images of Frank Ocean working construction, convey "love" as industrious.
"Alabama"
- Descending piano melody plays as Frank opens with quasi-rap verses.
- Vocals come in split between the left and right channels, creating an overlapping and disorienting spatial effect.
- Distortion on the closing vocals evokes iLoveMakonnen.
"Mine"
- Transition between songs is quite unclear.
- "Mine" may be an interlude or a song beginning with the forthcoming rap vocals.
"U-N-I-T-Y"
- General note: wardrobe changes have occurred with each song.
- Rap vocals demonstrate a strong improvement in Ocean's rap delivery; his cadence is more carefully paced and restrained compared to rap verses he previously released through his Tumblr.
- Rapping style is most kin to that of Earl Sweatshirt's slowest moments on "Doris."
"Ambience 001: 'In a Certain Way'"
- Interlude plays a record sample of dialogue (seemingly from a film).
"Commes Des Garcons"
- Eclectic vocal delivery early on.
- Deftly layered synths, vocals, and drum kits.
- Tempo increase after chorus leads to instrumental based on chamber drums, faint synths, and artificial snares.
"Ambience 002: 'Honeybaby'"
- Another brief interlude features the scorching wails of a soul singer crying "Honeybaby."
"Wither"
- Noise from construction can be heard quite noticeably; one of few times, if not the first, this has happened in the video.
- Instrumental is a widely spaced chord progression on a Rhodes.
- Frank Ocean's vocal style and signature vocal registers seem unchanged.
- Jazz bass-backing is faintly reminiscent of Thundercat.
"Hublots"
- Another interlude whose beginning and end cannot be precisely determined without reference.
"In Here Somewhere"
- Non-vocalist quasi-rap into.
- Vocal layering compliments sparse synth instrumental.
- Varying vocals may be a pitch-altered Ocean, another artist, or a sample.
"Slide on Me"
- Slow guitar arpeggios form the foundation for this instrumental.
- Instrumental layered with synth-bass backing and hissing and fluttering drum kit accents.
- Vocal reemploy split-channel spatial effects.
- Ocean appears to be spray-painting rectangular boxes black; this is one of the last visuals featured on Ocean's live stream. The boxes are transferred from an aerosol protected paint room to the main warehouse.
- Synth outro has a very ethereal aesthetic.
"Sideways"
- Another rap verse from Frank.
- Instrumental sputters in and out in a tremolo-style break.
- Ocean stacks the boxes by sliding one end over a standing metal rod, forming what seems to be a staircase.
- The steps increase in color from bottom to top; from a natural wood grain to black.
"Florida"
- Interlude featuring chorus vocals accented by layers of harmonies sung by Ocean.
"Deathwish (ASR)"
- Instrumental features distant, distorted, high-register vocals.
- Waning synths are layered with trap-style percussion.
- General note: Album is highly contemporary. It incorporates elements of contemporary hip-hop (Young Thug, iLoveMakonnen) without seeming fadish or gimmicky.
"Rushes"
- Elongated strums on electric guitar form the base of this widely spaced instrumental.
- The staircase is now approximately 7 feet tall.
- Song features a female vocal contribution.
- Latter end of the song features an increasing distortion on Frank's vocals.
- Sounds like what Kanye wished the vocals on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sounded like.
"Rushes/Rushes To"
- The electric guitar instrumental of "Rushes" carries over in greater distortion.
- High-tempo, bass-heavy spattering percussion.
- Electronic track serves as either the outro to "Rushes" or the intro to "Rushes To."
"Rushes To"
- Acoustic guitar instrumental.
- Song is the most minimal of the album.
- Moments of double-tracked vocals.
- The closing vocals feature Ocean at his most passionate; it is at the song's end that he strains his voice the most.
"Higgs"
- Dancing instrumental of what sounds like an electronic steel drum.
- Slow rap vocal delivery.
- Some would consider the instrumental to be trip hop.
- Shot closes in on Franks lower legs as he climbs the stairs.
- The scene then cuts to the visuals featured at the beginning of the video.
Outro
- The stoic voice featured at the introduction continues its dialogue.
- Dialogue breaks into an avant garde garage house track.
Notably Missing from Endless
- New songs performed on Ocean's California Live, You're Not Dead Tour (2013).
Upon first listen, the extent to which Ocean has broadened his range of musical influences and output is truly impressive. Considering his admiration for Radiohead, the electronic palate of the new material draws a (dare I say) warranted comparison to the magnitude of growth Radiohead demonstrated between Ok Computer (1997) and Kid A (2000). Yet with all that we have been given to savor from this visual album, an additional release is reported to still be due this weekend.