“Pyramids” has so much going on that it’s overwhelming for a short-form write-up like this: the Michael Jackson lilt in Ocean’s delivery during the early section, the structural metamorphosis from thumping single into a restrained dissolve, its toying with Top 40 lyrical conventions, the extended and evolving titular metaphor, the layers of instrumentation.
While all of that is well and good, in the end it’s all beside the point because this track is its own star. He’s written songs for vocalists ranging from Justin Bieber to John Legend, is an associate of the trailblazing Odd Future collective, has thrown down a set at Coachella, and appeared on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne album last year. Remember the first time you heard “Bombs Over Baghdad” and thought, “Whoa–what is this?” That’s how “Pyramids” feels: the unmistakeable sound of boundaries being redefined, of genres being pushed around.įor a twenty-four year old, Frank Ocean already has a ridiculous resumé. Each spin of “Pyramids” moves my thinking more toward the latter option but either way, one can’t help but feel that the sound here is the sound of the future. Kelly or if he’s into something more insidious, exploding those conventions in an undercover operation. Now, many listens later, it’s still difficult to pinpoint whether Ocean is celebrating slow-jam forerunners like R. The first time I listened to Frank Ocean‘s nearly ten-minute suite–the first taste of his upcoming Channel Orange debut LP–I was intrigued the second time, I was sold on its genius. Is “Pyramids” an affirmation of contemporary R&B or a complete refutation of it?
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