Top 10 Albums of 2011: #4

It’s an American artist who hasn’t strictly released an album up next in the countdown. This mixtape was released in February and blew up soon after, landing Frank Ocean some big time guest appearances including on two tracks of the Jay-Z/Kanye West collab Watch the Throne.

4. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia Ultra



I can remember hearing Novacane for the first time on a DJ Oneman Boiler Room set and straight away typed in the lyrics to Google to find out what it was. This album, sorry mixtape was released to vent frustrations that Frank’s record label Def Jam had neglected him proclaiming on Twitter that "i. did. this. not ISLAND DEF JAM”. The album uses the ultra soulful voice of Frank together with well used samples to create what is essentially a pretty poppy R&B record. But it’s a bloody good R&B record!

The tracks are linked together with nostalgic interludes named after 90’s video games with the sounds of a cassette player rewinding, fast-forwarding, and clicking. Giving the mixtape an old school vibe, the content matter of the lyrics are more meaningful and dare I say slightly higher brow than you would come to expect from a 21st century R&B record. Swim Good deals with suicide, We All Try is an uplifting look into faith in humanity and Songs for Women has humour to it as Frank tells of the toils and troubles of getting the girl.

The mixtape is available for FREE DOWNLOAD over on Frank's TUMBLR page.