Endless is Frank Ocean's 2nd and last album release on his major label, Def Jam Records.
It was released on August 19th, 2016. However, this album was released very, very differently...
On August 1st, 2016, a mysterious live stream video had popped up on Frank Ocean's website.
It was a black and white live stream of Ocean building what would eventually become a staircase.
He was alone inside of an empty warehouse, and no new music was playing.
He was literally building, welding, and cutting different things to build a staircase.
The live streamed video kept running for almost three weeks.
Finally, on August 19th, 2016, new music had started playing.
This is the official date for Frank Ocean's new album release of Endless.
The video then continued to play the whole album nonstop.
By the end of the video, you see Ocean finishing the staircase he built and him walking up the stairs.
Below is a video of the live stream:
This album showcases Ocean's more experimental side. In this release, he experiments with a lot of complex vocal techniques and song structures.
Each song sounds like a sporadic idea that Ocean quickly recorded, but never really finished, although that's not a bad thing.
It would be difficult to give this album a specific genre because he bounces around from hip-hop to RnB and in between.
Nonetheless, the album offers many gems that a lot of his fans very much appreciate.
The first song on the album is a cover of a song by the Isley Brothers called At Your Best (You Are Love).
Ocean's rendition is a slow burned, emotional ride with Ocean's falsetto carrying a majority of the first half.
In his song, U-N-I-T-Y, he shifts from singing on the song before to straight rapping. A side of Ocean we've never really experienced too much prior to this album.
On the last song, Ocean raps over a triumphant instrumental where the song ends with a fast, sporadic drum and bass instrumental.
My favorite songs: Wither, Rushes, and Mitsubishi Sony
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