I’ve liked the Broken Bells version of this song for a long time now and I always thought to myself that it is surprisingly soulful in places and it would be cool to hear an R&B singer get their hands on it.
Enter Joss Stone.
And I’m a happy camper. Love her. Love the cover. Excited for the new cd.
Music
Have you read about this guy yet? I feel like I’ve heard of him over the past year or so, but when it was about the group he is part of, Odd Future. So, Frank Ocean wrote a blog post where he shared that his first love was a man. Who knows if he has been with men since or if he went back to women, but still– it’s interesting. He is being called the first R&B singer to come out. I guess Lil’ Richard never did, did he? I didn’t know of him before so I have nothing to compare it to. It’s not really “coming out” when you don’t know the person. That’s just learning a new thing about someone you just met.
Specifically, he said:
4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. It was my first love. It changed my life.
He does sing about girls on his cd so I don’t know that he intended to say that he is gay as much as just sharing part of his past. Maybe he thought it would come out soon anyway. You do wonder where his head is at (if he feels he is bi or if he doesn’t have the experience to know which he likes better yet or that he in fact digs men). He did only say his first love was male after all, and it never went beyond confessed feelings.
“I don’t know what happens now, and that’s alrite. I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore… Thanks to my first love, I’m grateful for you. Grateful that even though it wasn’t what I hoped for and even though it was never enough, it was… I feel like a free man. If I listen closely… I can hear the sky falling too.” -Frank Ocean
Now I’m starting to check out who this guy is and it actually is pretty surprising that he came out like that. Especially right before his cd came out. Two, two come outs! Ah Ah Ah Ahhhhh! I just don’t get the impression he “came out” because he had to i.e. he was queeny, so it seems to be more than a singular sensation.
Here is an interview about his music:
Okay, so he may be a little fruity at moments. Here is a clip I found on Youtube. If you don’t really care for R&B you won’t like it though. I warn ya. I like his falsetto. The verses are a little too Drake-y for me though.
He’s streaming his new cd, Channel Orange on his site, which is a tumblr site. I followed him to see what this kid does next. What I will say is that I like how he seems to actually think and reflect and he expresses himself well.
Musicwise, I dunno. It can often be very slow. It would be nice if there was a bit more fire in places. Even Adele can manage an uptempo or two. I guess maybe I’m just not into it because I can play other singers like D’Angelo, Mayer Hawthorne, Angie Stone, etc. and never need an uptempo. To be fair, I do prefer a neosoul, throwbacky vibe to R&B than a lot of contemporary singers like Usher… Fuck! Who else is there signing R&B right now? Jason DeRulo makes me puke. Ray J wishes! R Kelly is creepy. Trey Songz is aight. Don’t even think about saying Justin Bieber. I say Jason DeRulo comes out next and then they can make sweet love by the fireplace.
The mood is definitely mellow on Frank’s cd….
Here’s a thought: When I’m feeling a bit more mellow I’ll listen to it again. As of now though, I don’t know if I would have ever heard of this guy on a grand scale if it wasn’t for him coming out. I’m not so sure that is enough to motivate any male R&B singer to come out yet. Is it?
I’m trying to imagine if he released a song or two without this big news story if it would have made its way to me or not. Maybe just not as quickly. Who knows. We’ll see…
–RJP
Ok, this song I found is actually pretty cool. As soon as I stopped wondering why he was acting that way from Novocaine and realized, no, DUH, he was smoking opium…– I had to watch it again. He is being honest in ways no other R&B singer seems to have any interest in doing and its about damn time, really. Very brave (and ballsy) guy. That takes a lot of character. Rooting for him to be on our team now. But if he ever starts talking like that douchebag Kanye West I reserve the right to take that back.
Ooh, he plays piano. That makes him, like, twice as musical.
That’s a little more like it.
So, every once in a while my boyfriend will intro me to music I can actually get into. That doesn’t happen very often at all, but he played some videos of this guy for me and I dig it. I did find myself wanting to listen to it without any visual so I could get past the constant “huh…that’s not what you’d expect him to look like” dialogue going on in my head as I heard his songs.
I’m going to do a little itunes shopping now, but the videos are actually pretty cool and creative and worth seeing. Anyhowever, at the risk of making anyone look at something besides a hole being stretched, here are some of my fav Mayer Hawthorne videos thus far…
Music
Jack off Break: This performance is so good!
Original Version Music Video:
KEXP (Seattle) In Studio performance:
MusicOk, seriously though….puke. Why didn’t anyone explain to these two that in a duet– you usually sing the SAME song. No No. Not your own mash up of two singles. The SAME song. I like these singers individually, but it was so jarring every time Alejandro’s part came. Someone needed to yell “just kidding!” after he sang because it didn’t sound like he was seriously trying to be part of that song. Hell, I wouldn’t blame Alicia for plugging her ear either to get the sound of his verse out of her head so she could sing hers.
