If you like Frank Ocean
For the Blonde-on-repeat crowd: songs that feel private, a little unfinished and very late at night. None of them are the names Spotify already pushes at you.
8 picks, none of them the obvious ones. Tell us what you think of each.
Start with: Rodeo Clown
Raw, cracked-voice soul recorded like it happened in one take in a bedroom. The same feeling as Frank's quieter moments, where the mistakes are the point.
Start with: Are You Looking Up
Guitar tones that sound half-remembered and a voice buried in the mix. If you loved how Blonde made empty space feel full, this is your next obsession.
Start with: (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano
Just a piano and a voice that breaks in the right places. Sampha sang on Blonde, and this is the song that explains why Frank called him.
Not sure where to start?
Start with: Doomed
A falsetto that floats over almost nothing. It has the same lonely, cinematic hush as the end of Blonde, and it hits just as hard.
Start with: Champagne Coast
Dev Hynes writes hazy, heartbroken R&B that sits right next to channel ORANGE. This one sounds like a summer you are already missing.
Start with: Honey
Soft, warm R&B from a Punjabi-American singer who makes tenderness sound effortless. The calm, sunlit side of the Frank Ocean mood.
Start with: Want Me
Jazz drums, a whispered vocal and a lot of tape hiss. South London's answer to the late-night side of Frank's catalogue.
Start with: Black Truck
Acoustic guitar, R&B phrasing and lyrics that feel like reading someone's notes app. Small, honest and quietly brilliant.