Average Rating: 8.1/10
Overall Rating: 9/10
1. Street Fighter Skit
2. Strawberry Swing (9/10)
3. Novacane (10/10)
4. We All Try (9/10)
5. Bitches Talkin’ Skit
6. Songs For Women (7/10)
7. Lovecrimes (5/10)
8. Golden Eye Skit
9. There Will Be Tears (6/10)
10. Swim Good (10/10)
11. Dust (9.5/10)
12. American Wedding (10/10)
13. Soul Caliber Skit
14. Natural Feels (6/10)
Odd Future is mostly horrorcore and hardcore hip-hop. There is not much outside that subgenere of hip-hop involved in the group. In fact, the only member of Odd Future who I can think of who has a different background and style is Frank Ocean, for one thing, he sings, he doesn’t rap, he’s less hardcore, and honestly he’s the most different on the group, comparing to the rest of the group, but based on the music he makes. I think Frank might end up as the most successful member of the group commercially, but only one thing can fully prove that, which is how good his debut EP, Nostalgia: Ultra will be.
Comparing Frank Ocean to the rest of Odd Future in terms of quality isn’t fair, it’s like asking “who killed Love The Way You Lie? Eminem or Rihanna?” I mean, true, they were in the same song, but Rihanna had the hook and Eminem had all three verses, and that’s similar to Frank Ocean to the rest of Odd Future is the same thing, because true, they are in the same group, but there roles are really different. So perhaps, considering it the most stand out different member of Odd Future, how will Nostalgia: Ultra do?
The theme for this album isn’t really clear, but based on the music here I think the theme here is just to have some more mature R’n’B tracks, and what better way to make one than with Frank’s style. His voice was great along most of the album, the things he talks about here are more negative than the things on the other R’n’B albums coming out, and the production is just really different and unique. So generally despite having more negative content on this project, people who like R’n’B will surely enjoy this EP, especially because it seems like it has a really clear theme, plus the music s excellent.
The EP does talk about a lot of stuff. It has so many different topics and a great variety of diversity with the content, by looking at the EP some of the most memorable tracks here where the different ones comparing to the album, and to general R’n’B. The ones that talk about love or sex and stuff, but at the same time have a different, more negative feel.
One of my favorites he on this EP was “Novacane”. It was a really strong track, it had a great beat, Frank’s vocals where outstanding, and the concept was really clever and unique. it was about a girl who Frank loves, and at the same time doesn’t love, so he describes sex with this girl and his feelings towards her are numb, and he feels like he’s on novacane when he’s with her.
“Swim Good” was another really strong track. It was really just a song that was about just running away from your problems, just getting away from them and avoiding them for good, and as usual , the production was strong, and Frank’s vocals where exactly on Q.
“Dust” was another great song. As usual it has stand out production and great vocals, and as usual it has a great concept. Which was basically about how he was close to this girl, then along the time they grew apart, and frank is practically just singing about how he feels about that and how he shouldn’t have let her go. It was a really relatable song, people always grow apart, and it does hurt more in a relationship. So obviously this was a truly great track, with a great and relatable concept to support it.
Now, to end the best tracks part and the positives of the EP in this review. I’d like to talk about the track “American Wedding” right now, which was another round up applause deserving track, like most of the songs on the album. The song was sad and negative, but this one went through a bit of a different direction, it samples Hotel California by The Eagles, and what’s interesting about it is that the song is a lot like a story, at first starts off all positive and about his dream wedding, then slowly goes into divorce, then Frank ends up losing everything at the end of the song.
The album does have some issues though, despite having mostly great tracks. It does lack a few things. For one thing, it lacks guest appearances, every song was Frank and just Frank, it doesn't even feature any other Odd Future members. Also, songs like “Lovecrimes” and “There Will Be Tears” are good tracks, they shine in there production, but they do use a lot of Autotune, which is really unnecessary because Frank never needed any for his music, his voice is great, and he didn't need to change it, no matter what the reason.
Nostalgia: Ultra really does a great job on showing a more negative side of R’n’B. Every song here talks about something negative more or less, and honestly gave the genre something that was missing. Every R’n’B song these days are strongly supporting love and stuff like that, but Frank Ocean’s EP does the exact opposite. So as far as an R’n’B album, it does so many great things, the vocals where really good, the production was solid, and it was nothing but raw emotion. Qs for being an Odd Future album, this is a great EP, it’s negative, it’s dark, it’s a lot like Odd Future’s other work, only on another genre, overall, despite a few shortcomings, Nostalgia: Ultra was a great way of letting everyone know who Frank Ocean is.
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