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20. Acura Integurl (2011)
Frank Ocean’s pre-fame demos are hard to find – there’s a fan-made, 64-track compilation called The Lonny Breaux Collection floating around – but worth checking out, as evinced by this brief but potent piano ballad. Sweet but heartsore, it packs an emotional punch; it would have been a highlight of the mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra, had it made the cut.
19. Higgs (2016)
The stark penultimate track on Ocean’s “visual album” Endless – just vocals and gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar – takes its name from the invisible energy of the Higgs field, which the lyrics seem to equate with love. It presents the emotion as mysterious and fleeting; Ocean’s voice is racked, the melody haunting.
18. Dear April (2020)
One of a string of singles Ocean put out between 2017 and 2020 – his last releases to date, although he obliquely mentioned a new album during his chaotic Coachella appearance in 2023. Dear April was billed as acoustic, but it’s built around jazzy electric guitar and synth washes – understated, but truly beautiful.
17. American Wedding (2011)
Several tracks on Nostalgia, Ultra featured Ocean singing over other people’s music, but American Wedding – based on the Eagles’ Hotel California – prompted legal action. It’s understandably a fan favourite: he may nick the tune, but Ocean replaces the original’s coked-out ennui with anguish that snags against the slickly familiar backing.
16. Slide on Me (2016)
The visual aspect of Endless – in which Ocean assembled a flight of stairs – may have been wilfully boring, but the music that accompanied it boasted tension between its hazy, dreamlike quality and its raw, mixtape-like roughness. This is audible to spectacular effect on Slide on Me’s blend of bumping R&B, lo-fi ambience and vocals that sit somewhere between nonchalant and pained.
15. Cayendo (2020)
Another of Ocean’s one-off single releases, the bilingual Cayendo fitted its moment perfectly. Released at the height of the Covid pandemic, it sounded as if it had been recorded by someone locked in their bedroom. Its muffled, grumbling guitar and vocal – shifting from deep and effect-smothered into anguished and emotive – captured a mood of troubled introspection.
14. Nikes (2016)
The first taste of Ocean’s second album, Blonde, threw listeners a curveball – a spare, crestfallen song that references the murder of Trayvon Martin, over half of which is sung by Ocean with his voice sped up to the point where it sounds nasal and cartoonish. Inexplicably, it works, musically and as a statement of leftfield intent.
13. Biking (2017)
Take your pick from either version of Biking. The A-side pulls Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator into Ocean’s strange sound-world – Jay-Z sounds as if he is rapping after being locked in a cupboard. The “solo” version lops off the lo-fi intro and features Ocean’s urgent vocal over an unhurried beat and languidly strummed acoustic guitar.
12. Rushes (2016)
Rushes seems to reflect on a relationship gone wrong: “First I was rushing for a wait / This time I’m waiting for a rush.” It makes fantastic use of Ocean’s chief vocal foil on Endless, Jazmine Sullivan, burying her powerful voice in the mix so it functions like another instrument, adding suitably heady uplift to the chorus.
11. Bad Religion (2012)
Bad Religion is effectively the sound of Ocean coming out, tormented by his love for another man and his closeted status. It would have been a bold move whatever it sounded like, but it’s also a fantastic song, deploying the dramatic sound of a church organ and delaying the arrival of the beat until its immense climax.
10. White Ferrari (2016)
White Ferrari is far from the usual driving anthem; rather, it evokes someone lost in thoughts and memories as they motor along. It’s daring – there is no chorus, the arrangement keeps changing – and beautifully done, from the fleeting interpolation of the Beatles’ Here There and Everywhere to Justin Vernon’s heart-stopping guest vocal.
9. Pink Matter (2012)
Should you require evidence of how different Ocean was, consider Pink Matter, a complex, thoughtful rumination on the female anatomy – presented as a dialogue with a sensei – that’s about as far from your standard male R&B star’s approach to the subject as you could get. Plus: a fantastic guest verse from André 3000.
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8. Nights (2016)
One of four billion-streaming tracks from Blonde, Nights’ exploration of a mind working overtime in the small hours – picking through childhood memories, the pressures of fame, failing relationships – sounds amazing. It warps and changes with each passing thought: clanging alt-rock guitar; eerie synth ambience; heavy-metal arpeggios; warm, beat-forward R&B.
7. Lost (2012)
The topic of drug use hangs over Channel Orange (see also: Crack Rock). On Lost, Ocean deploys one of his sweetest, poppiest melodies to depict the relationship between two co-dependent dealers. Despite the narrator’s promise of a better life, it isn’t clear who is dragging whom further into coked-out oblivion.
6. Ivy (2016)
Partly inspired by the Strokes – you can hear their influence in the muted guitar chug that underpins the track – Ivy splits the difference between indie rock and R&B ballad so skilfully that it’s impossible to categorise as either. The lyrics deal with memories and regrets; the closing scream isn’t so much cathartic as chilling.
5. Self Control (2016)
More relationship drama – has a relationship ever gone smoothly in an Ocean song? – originally intended to be sung as a duet; the female voice was eventually replaced by Ocean’s own, sped up. A wonderfully subtle string arrangement and a chorus of multitracked backing vocals amp up the infectious mood of sadness mixed with resignation.
4. Chanel (2017)
The best of Ocean’s string of one-off singles, Chanel delves straight into the topic of sexual fluidity and notions of masculinity: “My guy pretty like a girl / And he got fight stories to tell.” The production is stripped back – there are moments when the music is barely there – focusing attention on Ocean’s gripping vocal.
3. Pink + White (2016)
An all-star cast – production by Pharrell, a Jon Brion string arrangement, Beyoncé on backing vocals – but it’s all about the song nevertheless. The haunting earworm of the piano figure, the 60s soul mood, the ache in Ocean’s voice as he sings “you showed me love”: Pink + White makes misery sound worth wallowing in.
2. Novacane (2011)
Amid the delightfully scrappy eclecticism of Nostalgia, Ultra is Ocean’s first classic. The brilliantly original storytelling – a dental student who dabbles in pornography and gets high on local anaesthetic – blends darkness and disquiet with flashes of wit, a fabulous, pulsing, slowly building production and a bright, pop-facing melody. It’s got the lot.
1. Pyramids (2012)
As statements of intent go, the first single from Channel Orange takes some beating. It’s nearly 10 shapeshifting minutes long, initially driven by a house rhythm and a riff that recalls Capella’s 90s Eurodance anthem U Got 2 Know. It changes completely midway through, first to an ambient interlude, then to spaced-out R&B, before concluding with a burst of rock guitar. (It also boasts an incomprehensible narrative about ancient Egypt and strippers.) Compelling and compulsive, it underlined that, rather than being an upstart kid from the Odd Future stable, Ocean was an artist whose musical ambition would have impressed his idol, Prince.
Listen to the playlist. Note: five of the tracks in this article are not available to stream on Spotify
