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Channel Orange - Frank Ocean · Barber Cuts: Beats and Bars

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Welcome to Viber Cuts, Beats and fives.
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We're a father to daughter music podcast that slices into some of
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the greatest albums, one cut at a time.
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With no industry ties or formal training, just a shared love of
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music, we explore albums across genres, writing favorites and
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skips while digging into what makes each one iconic.
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I bring the beats. And I bring the bars and
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together we deliver real talk and fresh takes from both sides
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of the sound. What's up, everyone?
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I'm Riley and I'm Todd and welcome to this week's episode
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of Barber Cuts where we are talking about Channel Orange by
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Frank Ocean 2012. So a new one that I'm going to
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let Riley and friend of the show.
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Kate, I'm going to be the guest today.
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Hello, Kate. Kate is my roommate and my best
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friend, also a fellow music lover, loves Frank Ocean Channel
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Orange, so we thought we'd get her on the show to talk a little
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bit more about it and help us out.
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I am bringing my channel orange attire.
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There you go. My orange hoodie go.
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To the University of Tennessee. So that's our channel Orange.
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But neither one of you, ironically enough, have any
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orange on, so that is a shame. But here we are.
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It happens. They are on Friday.
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We're usually decked out. Yeah, so here, here we go.
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All right, least favorites, Riley, do you want to give some
1:45
least favorites? Sure.
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Did I catch you off guard? It's not like we had done this
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for like what, 26 some odd times?
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You should know what's coming. Listen well, the reason it was
2:02
difficult is because the song is like or this album is like some
2:06
others that we have listened to where it has some album or songs
2:11
that aren't really meant to be listened to on their own.
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The Painful way. Dark Side of the Moon was the
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other example. So it's like tough.
2:21
It feels wrong to pick out certain songs as like least
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favorite because it makes sense as like a conglomerate.
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But if I'd have to choose, my least favorites would be The
2:32
Start and Probably White with John Mayer.
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Great instrumental but it's an instrumental and I like lyrics.
2:43
Same with start. Start makes so much sense with
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the context of the album, but it's like you're not going to
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listen to it on its own. It's a cool song.
2:54
It's a really cool intro to the album.
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It has like the message alert, it has a chime for PlayStation
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Startup and some video game music.
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So it really sets the scene of it being like a more personal,
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relatable album, but you're not really gonna listen to it by
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itself. And it's meant to be with the
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album, so. Yeah, I agree, Start was one of
3:23
mine, then had some of the and it is.
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It is unfortunate because some of these songs are just like
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their their transition songs to to something else.
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But my my other least favorite was actually end, so my my 2
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least favorites were starting in.
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Unfortunate. But you know, and, and I get
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like, I get what he was doing. So, you know, but again, going
3:50
back, it feels, it feels bad to say these are least favorite
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songs. But in the concept of the album,
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we're still picking out certain songs.
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So it is what it is. Kate, you got least favorites.
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I mean, I don't necessarily need to or want to put you on the
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spot if. I have a list.
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I have my notes app typed. Oh wow, I can.
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Prepare a list of least favorites a list of I have.
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I have a couple lists for my least favorites.
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I almost did start too, but I gave that 1A buy for my least
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two. One of the mean Riley just
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talked about not just money, which is a more.
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It's not like against this was on its own, but it was almost
4:26
like a someone was on the phone in a car recording and it was
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like recorded in a car and it had like the turning signal and
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it was like someone's on the phone and we'd rather talk about
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that like the turning signal just like kept it would go on
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and off and it's like, oh, like it's kind of like a lot to
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listen to. So that was one of my least
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favorites. And then I didn't think this
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song was necessarily bad. I just have a really short
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attention span and it was 9 minutes and 53 seconds long.
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So I put pyramids. I didn't think it was bad.
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I just like I'm not super into like super duper long songs.
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So I think that's why I also put that one there.
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Yeah, that makes sense. All right, so favorites who?
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Who wants to go Riley Good to? Go this one.
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This one was also hard because like Dark Side of the Moon, they
5:11
all blend together like it. It's a story so it's hard to
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pick out like stand out ones. I will say I probably am not
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going to branch out that much from what's popular.
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One of my favorites was Super Rich Kids which features Earl's
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Sweatshirt. Very popular song, however
5:35
deserves it in my opinion. The intro immediately like kind
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of pulls you in. It has like the beat that you
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can follow. It sounds really nice.
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Earl's sweatshirt sounds good on this song.
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It's a good use of a feature and it's one of those songs that I I
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thought you liked this album because you like the songs that
5:55
sound super happy and melodic and have like these really like
5:59
harrowing dark meanings. And that's most of this album.
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Like you have to take a deep dive to find like kind of what
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he was talking about. And most of it's not like happy
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stuff, but you would not think that with.
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His. Sound so super rich kids, kind
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of. Follows.
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Through the song before, that's like Not Just Money and Suite
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Life, he has a portion of this album that's kind of focused on
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money and expenses and how that changes everything.
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And so it kind of talks about that throughout.
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And then it ends with super rich kids on that idea of money and
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it's the one that's the saddest. It's pretty harrowing in the
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sense of like, it's not like a happy song about having money.
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It's kind of having talking about too much money, super rich
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kids with nothing but loose ends kind of ending up feeling
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hopeless after having all of this stuff.
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Yet he sings about it as if it's the good times, and they both
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kind of do. So there's that juxtaposition.
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It's really nice. And then my other favorite was
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the probably the most well known, which is lost.
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Again, such a basic choice, but it's such a good song.
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I listen to this one probably the most on my own.
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It's it's actually about a drug supplier using his girlfriend as
7:30
a mule, a drug mule. And she gets lost in that
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lifestyle and like the gifts and the lifestyle that comes along
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with it and his hope for her to move away from that.
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This one was the 4th single it it achieved gold like it it's
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very popular and again, another song where listening to it like
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you would never think there's like this much deeper sad
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meaning to it all. But it's such a good song.
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There are so many other good songs so I feel kind of bad
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choosing the two like most popular ones, but in my opinion
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they're the most popular for Reset.
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All right, so I'll I'll go and and create a break in the two
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people that actually know what they're talking about.
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So one of mine was ink matter. And so again, I like the switch
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to Andre 3000 when his verse comes in.
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So that's really nice The and it's dreamy sounding.
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And then again for me, there's some some bluesy, soulful kind
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of guitar in there as well, which is from the guitar fan.
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That's that's nice when I see that.
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And which again is why the John Mayer didn't make it on my least
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favorites, the the guitar there safety and then the other one
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that I really liked what and and kept coming back to it.
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And I'm not sure why, but it's Bad Religion, like the organs at
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the beginning, almost like a confessional nature of a song
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riding in the back of a taxi cab and like no telling the stories
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those drivers here. But what caught me was, and, and
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we've talked about this before, when an artist uses the vocals
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as another instrument. And to me, that's what he did in
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this song really, really well, shifting into that falsetto, but
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yet then coming out of it. And, and so that was really nice
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to see just the range of him going around as, as he was, as
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he was singing. So those are my 2 favorites.
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Kate, what about you? My 2 favorites, one of my
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repeats with Riley was Super rich Kids.
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I love listening. Rap is like my favorite genre of
10:00
music. So anything I can kind of work
10:01
out to run to to give me kind of hype, I'm going to enjoy that.
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So super Rich Kids is my second favorite and then kind of switch
10:08
it up from rap. The Sweet Life song was my
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favorite. I just like the summary beat.
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I used to listen to it like I want to say one of the high
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school like summers I was in high school.
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So just kind of gave me like a nostalgic feeling too, just like
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thinking back, hearing back to that song.
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So those are my 2 talk and my boyfriend's My Spirit album.
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He wanted to pitch in. His two favorites are Pink
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Matter and Lost. This is like his two favorite
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songs of all time. OK, all right, very good.
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So pink matter. So I guess I'll I'll start by
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saying we'll we'll shift to watch people go listen to this
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album and and we can we can do it a couple ways.
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I'll, I'll start because normally I'll, I'll give like
10:50
stats about it. So it's got those named best
10:55
album in 2012 by all kinds of different magazines, all kinds
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of different publications nominated from album of the year
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in 2013. And a lot of people will say, if
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this album doesn't happen, you don't get Blonde, which came
11:11
later and may have had even more accolades to it, but this one's
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got all kinds of accolades as well.
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And so if you are like me and mostly, say, a rock fan, classic
11:27
rock fan, why would you go listen to R&B?
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Because this is a great album in a genre you're not used to.
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So go listen to it, give it a try.
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Even as we talked about like even if it's some of the songs
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that the the favorite songs and where the best beats and bars
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come in, I'd go listen to those. Even if it's just those few
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songs, just to get a different perspective because it it is
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quite different. And, and I'll let y'all probably
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get into some of those other things, but that would be my
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first plea to probably maybe some of the people that are my
12:05
age that have a classic rock rock bent go listen to it for
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those reasons. So Riley, Kate, what do y'all
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think? Why should people go listen to
12:14
this song or this album? Sorry.
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I can I can speak a little bit more and Kate, you can help fill
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in the gaps that I'm sure to have.
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I think additionally, this is a great album in the genre that
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it's in. And the reason that that's so
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neat for this album specifically is not only does it introduce
12:32
like the people, the older people that listen to like the
12:35
rock, the classic rock and that type of genre, it kind of
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reintroduced the popularity of R&B and kind of Marvin Gaye
12:45
style storytelling. Marvin Gaye was big inspiration
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to Frank Ocean. And this album, a lot of it
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mimics back. There's a part in one song where
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it's like kind of a call and response and it's theorized that
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that's based on the Marvin save the Marvin Gaye Save the
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Children, which we covered. So go listen to that podcast
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too. But it it was a great
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reintroduction for like this American R&B storytelling
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concept album genre that's not that popular or wasn't that
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popular before. Frank Ocean kind of brought it
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back and a lot of artists following him started to do it
13:22
more. I mean, there's Steve Lacy is a
13:25
big one that a lot of people listen to Daniel Caesar, Khalid,
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just a bunch for that realm. Same with rap.
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He inspired a lot of other rappers. 1 Kendrick Lamar cites
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him as an inspiration. Plus Indy, like he just reaches
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all of these different genres and he's highly like people will
13:45
really like him for the fact that he kind of disregarded any
13:49
popular trends of the time. Like this album is not a great
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look into what people were listening to at the time.
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It was very set apart, very different.
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And he like did not care, pursued that sound and it blew
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up and people loved it and wanted more of it.
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And like you said with Blonde, I would say most people would say
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Blonde is a better album than Channel Orange.
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They would consider that his best album.
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But like you said, we don't get that without Channel Orange.
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Channel Orange was the first intro to that being like a
14:23
popular genre. Yeah.
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Do you have anything to say, Kate?
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I was going to add this kind of went to my objective rating too,
14:30
but like it won the Grammy for the best urban contemporary
14:33
albums. I was just thinking like
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objectively, like it's going to reach a wide audience to get
14:37
that kind of award. So I was like, I feel like
14:39
there's so many different ages and genders that could like
14:42
enjoy this kind of music. So I just kind of like the
14:43
variety as you mentioned too. I don't mention but like that
14:47
anyone can enjoy at least like one of the songs in the album,
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like it could reach out to someone.
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Yeah, the one of the things that I'd found on it or interesting,
14:57
you know, whenever I find things like this, the Channel Orange,
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the the artwork is, is, you know, known like I knew the, I
15:04
knew the cover art before I ever listened to a song.
15:08
I was like, oh, that's an interesting name and covers all
15:11
orange. But not until I started looking
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at this did I realize it was named Channel Orange because he
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suffers. What?
15:19
What's that? Synthesizia, but a neurological,
15:23
neurological condition where I guess you see your perception of
15:29
numbers and letters are colors, which is crazy to me because
15:36
synesthesia because like that's, that's obviously not me, but
15:40
hearing people talk about it. But supposedly when he was
15:43
recording all this, orange was a color that he was seeing a lot
15:47
of at the time. So that's why it's called
15:50
Channel Orange, you know? And then other musicians,
15:54
Pharrell Williams, Billie Eilish, Lord, Kanye West, Billy
15:57
Joel, all have said that they have that same condition and see
16:01
notes, letters, numbers as colors.
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I also want to touch on like from a lyrical standpoint.
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Like I said, listening to the albums, you would never kind of
16:14
realize like everything he's talking about.
16:17
But his lyrics are very confessional.
16:20
He doesn't really hold back. The, the best example I have of
16:25
that is he kind of alludes and mentions like a man that he was
16:30
in love with and all of that. And at the time a lot of people
16:33
were like, Oh my gosh, like is he?
16:36
Is he not like what does this mean?
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And he like, had a letter that he wrote that was about the
16:41
story of him falling in love with a man first time for the
16:44
first time. And that's like in one of the CD
16:46
slips of like, he published it and put it like the CD slips as
16:52
like a piece which is just homage to like, how confessional
16:58
and open he is throughout the lyrics.
17:00
But I think it's just really interesting it it is considered
17:04
a concept album because it all flows together.
17:06
It's kind of back to Marvin Gaye.
17:08
It's very retrospective of the world that he's in.
17:12
I mean, Sierra Leone is about having like the process of
17:15
having a kid and maturing, like through that process, like
17:19
having a kid as a teenager and growing up super rich kids.
17:24
And Suite Life is all about like having this excess money, not
17:29
being this beautiful thing. Pink matters about the female
17:34
mind. Bad Religion is therapy session,
17:38
essentially. There's also, I believe it's
17:41
pyramids. It's about the pyramids is the
17:44
really long song. It's about like the history of
17:48
black women becoming Queens where they are like from being
17:51
Queens to being slaves to being degraded to what they are now.
17:54
Like it's very analytical, like analysis of analytical analysis.
18:01
That was good English by me of the world that he was seeing and
18:06
I just love it when. Artists.
18:08
Really do that because it is a wonderful snapshot in time of
18:13
what he was dealing with and what the world was dealing with,
18:16
which is what I think a lot of the appeal of Marvin Gaye was
18:19
too like. Interesting snapshot of the
18:21
problems that they were dealing with and how people were feeling
18:24
about them. OK.
18:24
You got anything else? I'm not I'm not like a big lyric
18:27
person, but I do know I had some like interesting facts and I
18:30
just like I think it's one of the things where it's like an
18:32
album that like sounds beautiful.
18:34
I don't know, like it's almost like you can see sound.
18:36
That's like I heard a lot of people talking about that too.
18:38
Let's talk about the synesthesia.
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But I also know he like famously released it early to like iTunes
18:43
to like avoid leaks, to like take control of like it an icon
18:46
head into Riley singer. It's like he puts so much heart
18:48
and soul and it's like he's gonna be on like on top of it.
18:51
Like I'm like, it's his decision.
18:53
Like no one else gonna take it from him.
18:54
Like he's how he's gonna release this, how it's gonna go.
18:57
Yeah, I think you also, you also see that a lot now, even in him
19:03
not releasing music, like he's he's gone like Mia, like people
19:10
don't hear from him that much, which is kind of a controversial
19:13
thing. People kind of get upset at him
19:16
for doing that. But since 2019, he really hasn't
19:20
done anything but little bits here or there.
19:22
Nothing. Huge.
19:24
And he's only got the two studio albums, Channel Orange and.
19:27
One yes, which is another great reason to go listen to this
19:30
album. Like he made a name for himself
19:32
in two albums like Hit overnight success from Channel Orange.
19:38
He had a few he had a relative success with.
19:41
He released some stuff just on its own because the studio
19:44
wasn't letting him make what he wanted and the success they saw
19:47
from that, they were like, all right dude, you can do what you
19:49
want now and then blew up. Yeah, 'cause what was the album?
19:52
It was Channel Orange and then whatever the the video album is
19:58
that he put on, I think Def Def Jam Records.
20:02
Yes. And then like the next day
20:04
released Blonde independently so he wouldn't have to put it with
20:08
that. Like, and again, that goes back
20:10
to Kate, what we're talking about.
20:11
Like he really cares for his music.
20:14
He's like, I don't like. I think he knew and again, I'm
20:17
I'm putting myself in issues like I'm I love this album.
20:22
Talking about Blonde, I want it to be released independently so
20:26
I can have control over it. So I'm going to release this
20:30
endless out, I think it's called Endless album under Def Jam so I
20:35
can fulfill my contract to them. And then the very next day,
20:39
here's Blonde and it it's a great album.
20:42
So just him caring for the music and and putting his heart and
20:46
soul into it. And it's like this is I want it
20:49
to be mine. Fantasy he's Mia and he lost his
20:54
brother in 2020 and that's why a lot of people speculate that he
20:58
kind of left he's like started not doing much end of 2019 and
21:03
then when that happened just kind of completely went like
21:06
disappeared like on talk shows and stuff I I Kate you mentioned
21:11
that him and Tyler, The Creator have some beef but.
21:15
Yes. They in like an interview Tyler,
21:18
the Creator was like, I haven't heard from him.
21:20
Anyone that's friends with him is even like famous that people
21:24
will ask them like have you heard from Frank Ocean?
21:27
I think Billy Eilish did it too. And all of them were like no
21:29
man, like we haven't heard from him either.
21:31
He's just doing his own thing right now.
21:33
And I think in even in that you can see like there's a care for
21:36
his music, like he does not want to be forced to release anything
21:40
or do anything that doesn't have his full attention and focus.
21:46
And so he's not and that's really hard to do in today's
21:50
world and still remain relevant, I guess.
21:54
But I think I think there's something to say that even in
21:58
his hiatus, hopefully hiatus, like you can still recognize
22:04
that there's a level of care in his music enough to not release
22:08
anything. So what is the Tyler and Frank
22:12
Ocean? I just know that he had been
22:15
friends. They were supposed to be like
22:17
best friends at some point, I believe.
22:18
I'm not like I haven't super, super looked into it, but I know
22:21
he like on social media like I've obviously he's on this
22:24
hiatus. He did go and unfollow like all
22:26
of them. Like he unfollowed them like
22:28
kind of like it's one thing to not talk to them like in
22:31
private, but I think just like the public acknowledging of him,
22:33
like removing all them under like friends, I think took a lot
22:36
of people like a lot of people have like that do love him also
22:39
love like Todd the crater and all these other artists.
22:40
So I think like people feel like also like a personal attack to
22:43
you in the sense where it's like it's one thing to not talk to
22:46
them in private and be to yourself, but like publicly
22:48
acknowledging that you don't be friends with them.
22:50
I think a lot of people were like, Oh, it's so upsetting, but
22:53
that. Makes sense.
22:54
Yeah, I guess he has a on this album, a hidden track on the CD
22:59
Records maybe record. I know C DS.
23:03
That's him and Tyler. It's a Tyler feature.
23:07
And I knew they did. They have very similar
23:10
listeners. So they did a lot together, or
23:13
enough together musically that I connect them with my brain,
23:16
Yeah. Yeah, I know They both came out
23:19
of what Odd Future. Best I can tell, it's a hip hop
23:26
collective where a bunch of people get together.
23:30
I I put it and I might get slammed for this, but I put it
23:36
to something similar to Wu Tang Clan, where it's a bunch of
23:42
rappers that come together, where they do perform together,
23:45
but then they also go off and do their own things here and there,
23:50
you know, and but they were both members of that.
23:53
So was Earl Sweatshirt. So maybe that's why he's he's
23:57
got the relationship on this album.
24:01
But yeah, they, they all came out of that.
24:04
And I'm from LA, so. Interesting.
24:07
And and Frank, Frank Ocean. Frank Ocean was added into it.
24:13
Tyler, The Creator was an original member of the group,
24:16
but they grew and. Didn't know that.
24:21
So as great as a bunch of his lyrics are, I did like I was
24:27
saying a lot that I was excited for you to listen to this album.
24:30
And then I started listening to the lyrics and surface level,
24:33
the lyrics are a little icky at times.
24:38
And then I felt very awkward. Yeah.
24:41
Didn't know what to do with that, but it's one of those
24:45
things that like with Frank Ocean, well, in my opinion, with
24:50
any musician that you can tell takes their music seriously, You
24:53
can't take any of their songs at surface level.
24:55
It's like it's an injustice to their music because their
25:00
opinions on it goes so much more.
25:02
Well, you can and this song sounds great surface level or
25:05
these. This album sounds great surface
25:06
level even as well. But even if like you listen to
25:10
it at 1st and you're like, that's a little uncomfy to like
25:12
listen to or hear like talked about, go look at like the
25:16
reason that he was writing about it because it's usually a lot
25:18
more than what most I, I guess I'm not coming for rap, but most
25:23
rappers do talk about that stuff very surface level.
25:25
He's just not. If you look into like, his
25:29
purpose for using certain things and imageries and all of that,
25:34
Yeah, it's a very interesting deep hole that you can fall
25:38
into. It it is, but unless you fall
25:40
into that hole, it can still come across as.
25:43
What would you call it? Icky, icky.
25:45
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Don't, don't let it stay icky.
25:48
Look a little bit deeper, all. Right.
25:52
So any any other notes, fun facts or anything else?
25:56
I one more fun fact I found is that he like recorded the album
26:00
all over the world. It's like some songs were like
26:02
one of the big things was like, it's like New Orleans to London
26:05
was a jump. I'm not exactly sure between
26:07
which songs. Like he just kind of went around
26:09
like kind of where he wanted to record.
26:12
Kind of cool and and some of them what was it start that you
26:16
said he was recording as he went cuz he put on his turn signal to
26:20
make a turn and was that the one No.
26:23
That's in not just money and it's.
26:25
Like just money. Yeah, they're.
26:26
Recording like a car. It's like kind of, yeah.
26:29
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, those those were some
26:34
some oddities. But again, that that's also what
26:37
makes the album unique in in its own way.
26:42
But like, like we talked about, you're not going to queue up
26:46
that song. Not just money, you're you got,
26:51
this is one of those like Pink Floyd, like oftentimes, like a
26:54
lot of concept albums are, you need to listen to the entire
26:58
album to get the full effect of it.
27:00
So. I will say the reason the turn
27:03
signal bothered me is because I listen to this album a lot while
27:05
driving and so I think that I somehow turned on my turn signal
27:09
or did something like it's the same as when a song has sirens
27:12
in it. Like I can't do that while I'm
27:13
driving, I have to skip it. But not just money.
27:16
It's really. You think the Popeyes coming
27:18
after you? I do anyway, the the person
27:21
who's kind of like scolding and that song is actually his best
27:24
friend's mom. He calls her like Auntie Rosie,
27:27
all of that. Like giving him like that's like
27:30
pretty close to a real conversation.
27:32
Like he just happened to be recording a real conversation of
27:35
advice and values and stuff like that, which is really always
27:40
fun. But I thought it's interesting.
27:43
This song, while also listening to Tyler, the Creator's new
27:48
album, he has a song that's very similar.
27:52
It's IOADI. Don't know how to pronounce it
27:55
to me. IoD She plays the person on the
27:59
the the bear. She's the the.
28:03
Female cook, Yeah. IO Debris.
28:06
I'm trying. She plays the role of mother
28:08
throughout that album. It's Tyler Crater's newer album.
28:12
It's what is it Crema Tobio? And she's also like scolding him
28:17
about like money and being spoiled and like all of that
28:21
stuff. And like hers is like don't get
28:24
don't trust any woman, like don't get him pregnant because
28:27
then I'm going to have to beat him up, like all of the stuff.
28:29
But it's a very similar like vibe of like this scolding woman
28:33
being like the song. And it was kind of funny to like
28:36
see them doing something very similar years apart.
28:39
It doesn't sound anything like it.
28:40
Like I'm not saying Tyler ripped him off or anything by any
28:43
means, but it was just funny that both of them have done a
28:46
whole song that was all about like kind of being scolded by a
28:50
woman. Well, So what is next?
28:56
Best beat bars? Riley?
28:59
What's you're the lyric person? What's the best lyric on the
29:04
album? One of my favorite lyrics was
29:05
from Crack Rock actually, which was a close one to one of my
29:09
favorite songs just because I really like the sound of it.
29:13
I like the sounds, if that makes any sense.
29:16
The very like rhythmic sounds, but it's a song about battling
29:23
drug addiction. Obviously.
29:24
It's called crack rock. The opening lyric is you don't
29:28
know how little you matter until you're all alone in the middle
29:30
of Arkansas with the Little Rock left and that glass.
29:33
I think that's just a low point that from what I can tell and
29:37
from other songs like it, it's a low point that a lot of people
29:39
hit in their battle with drug, drug addiction that kind of
29:44
feeds them into this positive feedback loop where they feel
29:47
worthless. So they do drugs and then they
29:49
feel worthless and it's just this loop that they fall into.
29:53
And I thought that was a really concise way of wording it, of
29:59
kind of just realizing how alone you are in the world and how
30:03
that feeling can affect drug use and perception of drugs and all
30:08
of that, that they explore through the rest of the song.
30:10
Very sad lyrics this time, but it was hard to find a happy one.
30:17
But I think that one was just a pretty straightforward, this is
30:20
the message of the song. Here you go.
30:23
And so I really liked it. Yeah, I would.
30:25
I would say given the nature of a lot of the subject matter of
30:28
this, it would have been, it would have been awfully
30:31
difficult to pull out a, I'll put it in quotes, heavy lyric.
30:36
Yep. And if you found one, it would
30:38
probably be taken out of context.
30:41
Or it would have been said ironically, because that's what
30:44
a few of the songs were. Yeah, true, true.
30:46
It's like an ironic. This is great.
30:48
Yeah. Rich and it was meant to be a
30:53
satire. Yeah.
30:56
All right, Kate, we'll go to you Best.
30:59
You said you didn't pay attention to lyrics, but if you
31:02
got one, I. Have a lyrics?
31:03
Great. OK, great.
31:04
So you got you can have lyrics, you can have music you can have.
31:09
Vibe or? You can talk about whatever you
31:10
got vibe I'm. A vibe person, Yeah.
31:12
There you go. You can talk about whatever
31:14
whatever you want to. I had.
31:16
One lyric that I thought was kind of fun.
31:17
It was ironic, like what Riley said, and I thought it was funny
31:20
because it still reminded me of my mom's the something she would
31:22
so say unironically, but it was in the suite life.
31:25
The song I thought was like more like upbeat, like fun summary.
31:28
It was like, why still rolled you when you got the beach?
31:31
And I think that was like an ironic staff of the vault they
31:33
come into and all that stuff. But it just reminded me of my
31:36
mom. That's exactly something she
31:37
would say. But also I Just Like That was
31:40
one of the one more happy lines I found while looking through
31:43
some of my favorite songs. Yeah.
31:45
Yeah, it was ironic. Yeah, it.
31:48
Was it was calling out people for not wanting to see the
31:51
tragedies of the world because they have enough money to ignore
31:54
it? But that song is one of those
31:57
where it sounds very. Like it sounds like it blends in
32:00
like the vibe exit. Yeah, so I.
32:03
Agree. I agree.
32:04
So before before I go and and switch away from me, Kate, you
32:09
you talked about vibe of music since this is best time.
32:14
Talk about why I guess maybe you like this one and as it pertains
32:18
to that, like what is it about? Maybe the vibe of this song or
32:23
not song about this album that you like?
32:28
Does that make? Sense I like yes, that does make
32:30
sense so something that I like about the vibe is is kind of
32:33
funny. I'm not a big like album person.
32:35
It's really hard for me to listen straight through an album
32:38
with like all the songs sound the same or like I kind of like
32:41
a bit random, like variety of music.
32:43
And I really like the vibe of this album because it's so like
32:46
it's very different throughout it.
32:48
So I think it's like something I could.
32:49
It's one of the few albums like I can listen through pretty much
32:53
again. It tells that story too.
32:54
So it's like also engaging, but just the vibe of it just kind of
32:57
like how it has like the beat she said, but then also the
32:59
other favorite song with like the Earl Sweatshirt feature.
33:02
Like it has that rap where I could like go for a run or I
33:05
could go work out or just like I'm doing homework and some
33:07
other ones that has that variety of like I won't kind of get
33:10
bored with the same kind of beat from every single song.
33:14
Yeah, that's good. So in fact, another reason why
33:18
people should go listen to it because it is so different.
33:23
I go back to, although Riley didn't like it, the Stevie
33:26
Wonder album was that way just because it it did go a lot of
33:32
different places. That wasn't going to say you
33:35
didn't like it. Like you gave it like no a
33:38
negative rating. First of all, I didn't.
33:41
Second of all, I said that to me, Steve.
33:45
And again, that's why I keep mentioning Marvin Gaye.
33:49
It's because Stevie Wonder did something very similar, Marvin
33:51
Gaye. I just thought Marvin Gaye did
33:53
it better. So I said Marvin Gaye.
33:56
I said I think you're either a Wonder person or a gay person.
33:59
And then I said, I can't say that Marvin Gaye person, and I'm
34:03
a more of a gay person. Yeah.
34:04
So yeah, the similar thing where it's so different, yet the same
34:09
topic. And yeah.
34:10
Yeah, and I and I, and I get what you're saying, Kate,
34:13
because there are especially when it gets to something maybe
34:17
and, and it sounds like you do like maybe not necessarily all
34:24
R&B, but it sounds like you like the album.
34:28
But for somebody that may not be an R&B fan, it did have a lot of
34:34
variety and different things to to pull from, to be able to say,
34:38
oh, I like this. So I like this.
34:40
So that that is neat. My favorite beat out and have we
34:49
done this two weeks in a row now?
34:51
I think so. So my best beat is actually the
34:54
first 45 seconds of crack rock. That's funny.
35:00
And so then when the lyrics kick in, I'm like off in my own
35:03
little La La land. But the, but it, it, it starts
35:08
with like the calm, easy piano and pretty simple.
35:13
I'll, I'll put in quotes because I know it's not.
35:15
And then the more I listen to it, I finally, I guess noticed
35:19
the rumble that's going in the background.
35:21
Like he had recorded an airplane flying overhead and then added
35:25
it in. So about 20 seconds of that and
35:28
then got a snare drum popped. And then the drum line kicks in
35:33
and the drumline seems like it's at a faster tempo than what the
35:38
piano is. And it's almost a juxtaposition
35:41
of I want the piano to speed up. But there's this tension of that
35:46
still slow piano with a funky drum beat that's going to it.
35:52
And it's a nice little difference.
35:53
So that was that was my best beat the opening of that so.
35:57
I feel like we also. Two weeks in a row that we've
35:59
picked this. Is inaugural and I'm I'm
36:03
breaking I'm breaking the walls, but I also have a favorite beat
36:08
that like that's that like is one of my favorite parts of the
36:13
albums on this one is the beat and it's again, probably not as
36:18
simple as I think it is. And I alluded to it earlier, the
36:21
opening to Super Rich Kids and that beat that follows
36:24
throughout it, the like boom, boom, the very deep, heavy like
36:31
feet that you can follow is so like it draws you in
36:36
immediately. And then how they sometimes when
36:39
you have such a strong beat, it's really hard to like make
36:44
your lyrics and make the rap kind of go along with it.
36:47
Sometimes it's easier, but a lot of times it ends up being harder
36:50
because it's such a pronounced beat that you can't be off of
36:52
it. And the way they work with that
36:55
beat throughout that song is just really good as well.
36:58
But I love. I did.
36:59
I did Just listen to it to remind myself, yeah, that's a
37:02
good strong chord, that Pam. I love it and it.
37:07
Draws you in and it that is nice.
37:10
It's so good. Ratings.
37:12
Who wants to go first? I can.
37:13
Go. OK, go first.
37:17
I think with everything that we've talked about, so the
37:19
objective rating for me is probably 9.5 to a 10.
37:23
It's somewhere in that range. Amazing you got to pick one.
37:28
I. Think this in the sliding scale
37:31
show. I think I'm going to go with a
37:34
10 for objective rating. I think that we've talked about
37:39
how much care he put into it. It is a very worked on album and
37:46
perfected album without sounding overworked either which is a
37:51
hard hard thing to do. There was so much care and
37:54
attention to detail that you could spot in each and every
37:57
song and then when you blew it out you could see it in the
38:00
whole album as it came together. Even just like the starting song
38:05
having like this video game type feeling, which again goes back
38:10
to like kind of the Marvin Gaye beginning to his album was like
38:14
at a party and you heard people talking and just sitting down
38:18
like it. It feels like that again.
38:21
And all of the albums that we or songs that we kind of talked
38:24
about being our least favorite still push the album forward in
38:27
certain ways. Subjectively, I would say it
38:31
would be hard to give it to not give it its dues.
38:33
Personal rating, I'd give it an 8.
38:35
Rap is not typically the genre that I go to.
38:40
R&B is sometimes, but I tend to go for slower, more alt stuff
38:47
rather than kind of this pop rap R&B style.
38:50
But he infuses so much of everyone's favorite type of
38:55
music somehow into this album that it's still such an
38:58
enjoyable album. Also, I really like songs that
39:02
flow into one another and it's hard to tell when one starts and
39:05
when 1 ends, and there's a lot of examples of that throughout
39:08
this album too. It just keeps me interested
39:10
enough to want to listen to it again, so I give it an 8.
39:14
All right, I'll go and then we'll turn the floor over to
39:18
Kate for her ratings. So objectively, A9 much to what
39:24
you were talking about, you can see what plays through or and
39:28
what he's trying to do is he plays through it.
39:31
Personally, I did a 5.5 just because it's not my kind of
39:37
music. But as I went through and looked
39:39
at, I was like, OK, I like about half of the album.
39:44
And again, as I was going through, probably a little bit
39:48
unfair to maybe some of the songs that weren't meant to be
39:52
standalone songs and and counting them, but overall,
39:57
it's, you know, not necessarily my genre, but I there were still
40:04
some some good parts in it. So, Kate, what do you think
40:08
about it? For my objective I did a 9.5
40:12
just because I rarely hear people say they don't like this
40:14
album and then I also think like Frank Ocean except.
40:17
For old people like me. Except for a few, but I think
40:23
Frank Ocean like accomplished what he set out to do.
40:25
Just like keeping the production like very clean, layered and
40:29
like almost having this like timeless effect.
40:31
So I think like 9.5 very, very high.
40:33
And then my personal 1. So like Riley said, I do like
40:36
R&B wrap and pop. So that's more of my like speed.
40:39
So I did 9 out of 10. I just think I just love raps.
40:44
I love the features he has. There are albums like I know
40:46
there's a Childish Gambino track he released during COVID.
40:49
He like re released it. But like a lot of it is more of
40:51
a like R&B style. And then he brings features into
40:54
rap and then like every other would be like a rap, such as
40:56
like more of the speed I like a lot.
40:58
And then I also Riley's my lyric person, so she'll tell me, But I
41:01
also like how I didn't. I've never really thought of it
41:04
as like more with thoughtful album, but like how she'll be
41:06
like, Oh, like this means this is this like I like the thought
41:08
he put in it too, because a lot of my music has dude had like no
41:11
thought. I'm going to be honest.
41:12
So this having thought I had to give it a higher ranking.
41:15
Yeah, yeah, No, that's understandable.
41:18
I think we've all got artists like that where it's like, I
41:21
just want to listen to something that's not going to make me
41:23
think. Not me, not I.
41:27
Yeah, that's. I want the opposite, that's why.
41:30
You're I still remember starting songs my sophomore year.
41:32
We room together like she's one that like like puzzle pieces.
41:35
When I think about, I always think of it like the true
41:37
meaning of and I can't like shake the thought, but she tells
41:39
him lyrics. I'm like, I cannot shake it.
41:40
I like always remember it and I'll tell all my other friends
41:42
like you know what I mean this. Yeah, yeah, Context Puzzle
41:46
Pieces is a great song by. So good So.
41:49
Fun song, you do a dance to it in our room that we shared
41:53
together sophomore year. That was like one of our first
41:55
songs of the week. It is actually a song about the
42:00
overuse of plastic surgery and your face not fitting together
42:03
like puzzle pieces anymore because you've done too much to
42:07
it. So we like, dance along to it.
42:10
And then the real lyrics are about facial reconstruction.
42:15
Interesting. I've heard that I can't like
42:16
Unsee it now like all I can see is like so.
42:21
I'm so nice to my friends and let them enjoy their music.
42:25
I'm so good. Yeah, nice.
42:28
Very good. So except for that song.
42:31
So Songs of the Week. So we will.
42:37
Should we give Kate the honor to go first since I guess the
42:40
segment was inspired by you? Or do you wanna or I?
42:44
Have mine, I have mine. Do you wanna go last?
42:46
I'm your first time. All right, let's go first.
42:49
Okay, so I had a I always have a bazillion songs of the week and
42:53
Riley knows close to almost every week and they're not
42:56
always amazing, but I chose an amazing one this time for the
42:58
podcast and I had to go through a bunch.
43:01
I went through like my top a bunch.
43:03
I decided on cross the street by junior varsity.
43:06
It's a very poppy song, but I think like a lot of different.
43:13
I think almost anyone can like it.
43:14
It's very poppy, very like go go go.
43:17
I think it's a very, I just saw that vibes are great on the
43:21
song. So that's my song in the week.
43:23
Good vibes do do you have you said some of them are awful that
43:27
you are self admitting they are awful songs Yes I so so so
43:33
what's a what's a awful song of the week as well just so people
43:37
can get the so who's. Your most played song of the
43:40
year? Most played song of the year.
43:43
I have to grab my phone cuz I need to pull up my SoundCloud.
43:46
I have like unreleased stuff. Yeah, so whenever I I made a
43:50
joke last week about her sending me like the worst songs known to
43:53
man, he sends me unreleased SoundCloud.
43:57
Like, yeah, I give myself one follower on SoundCloud and I'm
44:00
like, hey, how did you find this and what is this?
44:03
We got one follower on SoundCloud and and is the one
44:07
follower not even the person that uploaded it like that's?
44:10
When you know it's really a bot, that's.
44:12
When that's when you know it's bad.
44:14
It's when the guy or gal that uploads it that doesn't even
44:16
follow their own stuff. And then here comes Kate.
44:18
Follow follow. I know SoundCloud, I find this
44:22
means that the SoundCloud has a feature.
44:24
It's like almost like a TikTok feed where you swipe through
44:27
songs and you can like add or like.
44:30
And I don't get like really niche.
44:31
It like ends up like I go through it so much like when I'm
44:33
just doing a homework or running cuz it's like just I'm not I
44:37
don't always listen like the full songs like clips and stuff.
44:39
So it's kind of a nice feature they have where you can like
44:42
kind of I actually really like it like being a lot of fine new
44:44
music. It's not with the best music.
44:46
We'll see. My number one.
44:48
I was playing this for Riley today.
44:50
It's called this is my number one, number one on SoundCloud
44:53
and Apple chills by H2O. And it's kind of like a whisper
44:58
rap, but it's a cut of I'm not sure exactly what other song,
45:03
but it like loops I think three times throughout the whole song.
45:05
But it's like a very like, it's I like the vibes of it.
45:10
Yeah, she's like it's a loop of the same like. 3 lyrics just
45:14
yeah over and over over and. Of someone just whispering them
45:18
and it. Yeah, it's like a whisper rap
45:20
beat. I think you like the beat.
45:23
The beat's actually pretty good. I feel like it is good.
45:25
Yeah. All right, so now we got to go.
45:27
We got to go this song down. I think it's on Apple Music now,
45:31
but I think it should be easier to find.
45:33
It's probably on Spotify too. It's a it's an OK song, but just
45:37
the fact that the most played song of the year, like Kate, you
45:42
worded it perfectly. She was like, I would love to
45:44
see like I wish they showed me because I'm probably the the
45:48
only person in the world that has this as my most played.
45:50
Song of the year. I wish I could reach out to
45:53
this. Like I don't know if it's just a
45:54
person in their basement remixed it or if this is a real band or
45:58
I just want to reach out and be like, am I the number one to
45:59
listen to? Like I'm curious, but I'm just
46:02
going to assume I am. So who?
46:05
So whoever H2O is is like, you know, this Cape person is paying
46:11
my rent from listening and me getting the probably minuscule
46:17
royalty checks, but she listens to it so much she's paying the
46:20
rent. She is.
46:24
Oh, that's nice. All right, Riley, what do you
46:27
gots? Well in a similar vein following
46:31
that, I in honor of Rapt coming out, I would go with my most
46:38
listened to song of the year. I didn't tell you that I was
46:42
doing this, so you don't have to do this.
46:44
My BI should have told you. My most listened to song of the
46:49
year was Northern Attitude featuring Hosier by Noah Khan.
46:54
Big Noah Khan fan. No, that's pretty basic of me.
46:58
Yeah, I like to hike. You can kind of assume any
47:01
stereotype of a Noah Con fan and put that on me and it probably
47:05
fits at some point in my life. I love Noah Con.
47:10
I also love Hosier and that, that song and then together it
47:14
just works really well. I like the lyrics.
47:18
It's just, it's kind of a funny play on words as well with it
47:24
being Northern attitude. I don't know.
47:27
I, I think it's really funny as a Southern person who's dating
47:30
someone who is from the North, it's like, OK, I know what the
47:33
Northern attitude is now because I experienced the Northern
47:36
attitude, but I just really liked it.
47:39
Apparently I listen to it more than any other song this year.
47:42
So there we go. Very good.
47:45
Yeah. My my my top song was Animal by
47:50
Pearl Jam. Which is a good.
47:52
Song. So that's not my song of the
47:55
week, but that's that's what mine was.
47:59
Surprise to no one. Yeah, that and only.
48:03
That it's not black. True, but you know, black is a
48:08
little bit slower, so it's to Kate's word of the show.
48:12
That's a different vibe than what animal is.
48:15
There you go. And Speaking of different vibes,
48:18
my second one was Fix You by Coldplay.
48:21
So those are kind of two different directions.
48:24
But anyway. Like I need to ask, are you
48:27
doing okay? Yes.
48:29
That's your second favorite. If that's your second listen to
48:32
song, I mean you need talk. Yeah, my and, and Ryan, I kind
48:40
of talked about this, this, this podcast is really messing with
48:43
our wrapped and listening statistics because my, like I
48:50
pulled it up because I couldn't remember what it was #3 from
48:53
mine was straight, I guess it's straight.
48:56
No Chaser by Miles Davis. Number 4 was Hotel California
48:59
and number 5 was Crown of Love by Arcade Fire.
49:02
So I am all over the place emotionally.
49:06
I'm all over the place musically.
49:10
Like, you know, there is nothing wrong with me.
49:13
It's just sometimes the the vibe hits and you're like, man, the
49:17
song is just hitting hard for whatever reason and then
49:21
something else comes along. You're like, all right, I'm off
49:23
of that one and on to the next one.
49:25
So Miles Davis you all listen to around the house too?
49:28
Yeah. So anyway, so my song of the
49:30
week is yeah, is none of that. But my song of the week is Black
49:36
Crows, my morning song. So it's from 1992, bluesy
49:42
Southern rock, heavy guitar. It's got a loud kind of intro
49:48
that is nice, nice little guitar solo, and then it's got a fairly
49:54
long bridge of a song and then it's got a like low build up
50:03
back to when the main guitar pops in.
50:07
But I've always loved that song. It's not one of the more popular
50:11
ones for Black Crows. Most people think Hard to Handle
50:16
She Talks to Angels, but I really like the song itself.
50:20
Their second album, So my morning song by the Black Crows.
50:25
So that's our song of the week's songs.
50:29
Easy for me to say songs of the week.
50:32
And so now normally we would say next album, but wah wah.
50:36
Yeah, so as. We let Riley deliver the bad
50:40
news. Yeah, we are so appreciative of
50:45
everyone here and the support that we've gotten throughout
50:49
this past. Well, let us spend a year for
50:52
us, but it's coming to the end of the year of support and
50:55
listeners and all of that. We are going to be taking a
51:00
little bit of a break from the regular album per week just to
51:05
spend some time off with Christmas and family and all of
51:09
that. Also be home.
51:12
So spending time in person rather than through a screen and
51:17
all of that. We may release some things here
51:21
and there, maybe we'll recap our Spotify Raptor, talk about some
51:26
holiday songs here and there, but nothing scheduled the way it
51:29
normally has been. But we'll come back after this
51:33
break and with our next album, we'll probably post the album
51:37
somewhere on Instagram or something once we're listening
51:41
to it again, so you can listen along with us.
51:44
And we'll definitely throw, we'll definitely put it in the
51:46
feed too, so that people can know when, when we're starting
51:50
to come back and what album, if you like to listen along with
51:53
us. And we may put some other things
51:57
in there. We we still have to get back to
51:59
our poster that we keep talking about.
52:03
So maybe maybe we'll do, maybe we'll do that while we are away
52:07
as well. Then the other thing that I
52:11
wanted to say and didn't want to forget, but we actually had a
52:17
because we don't get them that much other than Kate, who was
52:20
our first ever commenter on our like maybe first episode, but we
52:26
had somebody comment and talk about band rise against.
52:31
And so Yep, we'll definitely give that one a listen to as
52:35
well. Maybe it'll make it into a song
52:39
of the week at some point. But this is, I guess, officially
52:43
ending season one in podcasting world.
52:46
So it's been fun. We've learned lots of things
52:50
and. How to edit out the two-minute
52:53
long pauses of thinking? Yep, we.
52:56
You want the uncut? Go listen.
52:58
Go watch. Yeah, go watch the video.
53:00
And yeah, sometimes when we start to think.
53:04
So that being said again, as Riley said, thanks everybody.
53:08
It's been, it's been fun getting to figure out how some of the
53:11
stuff works and talking with music or talking about music
53:14
with various people. Kate loved having you on.
53:17
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.
53:19
To do it again, so as Riley, we find whenever the albums kick
53:26
start again, make sure if there's one on there that would
53:30
fit with Kate's vibe, then we need to we need to invite Kate
53:34
back so. Yes, yes.
53:38
But I guess until next time, I'm Todd.
53:41
I'm. Riley.
53:44
I'm Kate. I'm.
53:47
Really sorry, it has been another episode of Barbara Katz.