I discovered Frank Ocean in 2019, from Tik Tok when his songs “Chanel” and “Lost” were extremely popular. The circle of Frank’s music has circled around my whole family. My brother has had a Blond album poster in his room for as long as I can remember, and my parents play his music on their speakers during summer. I fully dived into his music in summer 2022 and next thing I knew, I had my own poster, a shirt, and all his album/single covers.
His songs have actually impacted on me as a person, but really, listening to him is almost healing. My top five favorite songs are difficult to choose from but the list is pretty strong. Taking number one is “White Ferrari”. No joke, when the first few seconds of this song comes on it sends waves through my body. Too good. My other top four released favorites are “Nikes”, “Self Control”, “Thinkin Bout You”, and “Super Rich Kids”. His song “Pyramids” is 9 minutes and 54 seconds, the only 10 minute song I know all the lyrics to and will listen to fully without skipping. My favorite album is “Blonde”, which is also the album he released last. He hasn’t released an album since, but there have been theories of him returning in 2024. My brother introduced me to the unreleased album, “Endless” which is just SO different in the best way possible.
I could go on and on and just tell you “go listen to him” but I have “Endless” reasons to pursue you. Frank Ocean has 21 singles and so many unreleased songs so you’ll never run out of options. Also, not just coming from me but many claim that his art is curing and has the ability to make you feel healthier mentally. Ocean’s music has a huge range of moods, I’d say “Channel Orange” is more on the upside, “Blonde” is on the more close hitting side, and “Nostalgia Ultra” is honestly a mix.
If you don’t know where to start, you’ll know now. I’d assume you’re going to mostly start to listen to the more popular songs that you’d recognize.
Here’s a few songs you’ve probably heard before:
- “Lost”
- “Chanel”
- “Ivy”
- “Pink + White”
- “Thinkin Bout You”
- “Novacane”
- “Godspeed”
- “Super Rich Kids”
- “Pink Matter”
- “Wiseman” (unreleased)
- “Self Control”
- “White Ferrari”
- “Pyramids”
Pretty much all of those songs have trended on Tiktok, or have been viral on many platforms. BUT, don’t just overplay these songs, because there’s so many underrated songs that are almost at the same level or are better than those.
Some of my favorite underrated songs to discover:
- “Nikes”
- “Nights”
- “Songs for Women”
- “Dear April”
- “Monks”
- “Cayendo”
- “Miss You So”
- “Swim Good”
- “Solo”
- “Crack Rock”
- “Sierra Leone”
- “My Room”
- “Seigfried”
- “Bad Religion”
- “Forrest Gump”
- “Moon River”
- “American Wedding” (unreleased)
- “Pretty Sweet”
- “Close to You”