Why Frank Ocean is Winning

Just like everyone else I simply cannot get enough of the Frank Ocean Nostalgia,Ultra mixtape. If you aren't listening, you clearly don't have internet or friends. Womp. Luckily for you, I've mentioned it here, which means you should go download it now, and pretend you were in the loop from the get go.

Now that we've gotten that out the way, let's get back to the purpose of this post: highlighting all the reasons why Frank Ocean is Winning. Or most importantly, speaking my language.


Press play.

I'm walking down Broadway to meet the girls for dinner when something stops me dead in my tracks - Nature Feels comes on and those beginning beats (copped by MGMT's Electric Feel) are getting under my skin. Then he goes in:

[Verse 1]
I've been meaning to fuck you in the garden
Been breathing so hard, we both could use the oxygen
Just hop on my back, I'll take you down the stairs
Into my backyard and lay you right on the grass

You had me at garden. Perhaps because I hail from the suburbs, where I grew up on a half acre of land that included many failed attempts at flourishing gardens. The idea that he wants to you-know-what in the garden means more to me for this reason.

[Hook]
Give it you over again, over again over again
Over again over again, over again over again
Making love, underneath the cherry leaves
Baby girl, tell me how my nature feels
Said oh baby, up against the cherry tree
Baby girl, I'll give it to you naturally, naturally

The notion of this all unfolding in a garden under a cherry tree is both incredibly sexy and hopeful. Cherry Trees represent death (eep!), rebirth, and (naturally) new awakenings. This moment outside is more than just some sexytime between two lovers - to me, the cherry tree involvement highlights new strides in their relationship.

[Verse 2]
Feeling like Adam when he first found out this existed
Me and my Eve trying out our first positions
And it's all good, and it's all free,
And it's all you, and it's only me
Playing in the dirt, wrestling myself inside you

The Adam and Eve reference isn't lost on me. Knowing Eve was made from Adam, this seems to conjure up a heightened sexual reference - there is a fluidity of bodies moving together, creating together. And besides, who doesn't love to wrestle?

[Hook]
Give it you over again, over again over again
Over again over again, over again over again
Making love, underneath the cherry leaves
Baby girl, tell me how my nature feels
Said oh baby, up against the cherry tree
Baby girl, I'll give it to you naturally, naturally

[Bridge]
My cavewoman, I'm a caveman
Doing wild things in a wild land
We keep going baby, we keep getting it baby
We'll get pebbles maybe a couple bam bams
Bam bam, bang bang, girl your heart
Goes bam and bang, feel my heart go, go, go

Not gonna lie, he loses me here - talking about making little Pebbles and Bam Bams. Granted, I'm trying to dislike children less, but the magic for me ends at the thought of babies. Sorry, bro. But just when I think I'm done you bring MGMT back at the end with the original bridge and outro, and I'm lost in this song again.

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