I’m Not Like Other Frank Ocean Fans

_{Photo by Kleigh Balugo}

By Kleigh Balugo

“U-N-I-T-Y, Neptunes and peace signs”

Endless is my favorite Frank Ocean album. And not just because I’m too pretentious to say it’s Blonde, ok maybe it’s a little bit because of that. But it really is my favorite. That’s saying a lot too because I’ve been a hardcore Frank Ocean stan for as long as I can remember. 

I can’t explain why but I just have such fond memories listening to Endless. Firstly, it is a sort of weird listening experience. I’m a Spotify user now but when I had Apple Music, the only way to listen to it was as a visual album. Yeah a visual album, like Beyonce’s Lemonade (Which I never really got into but just using it as an example here.) Which means instead of having a track list of all the songs on the album and being able to click through them, or shuffle when it’s your 500th time listening, you’re forced to listen to it from start to finish in the same exact order every time, as a little black and white video plays. 

This experience might deter some people from listening at all, but not me. (Omg guys I’m not like other Frank Ocean fans, I’m different.) One problem I always have is that I can never decide what songs to listen to, in what order to listen to them, etc. Well Endless solves all of these problems for me. My favorite thing to do was listen to it when I would drive to my job at the mall in high school, and now it’s when I’m on the train and have to transfer lines a few times. There’s something so therapeutic about not having to stress so much about what to listen to and just pressing play. Especially because Endless is so good I never have to worry, every time I listen I know I’m going to enjoy it. Maybe that makes me seem boring but you’ll understand when you listen.

All of the tracks on this album are pretty short, but that doesn’t take away from how good they are. My favorites are U-N-I-T-Y and Comme des Garcons (which I learned the titles of after listening to, since like I said, it’s a weird listening experience.) Lyrically, Frank Ocean ranks above most and with Vegyn producing, you can’t blame me for listening to Endless as many times as I have.