Dissect - S3E11 - Solo by Frank Ocean

Episode Date: August 7, 2018

We dissect "Solo" by Frank Ocean, a series of narrative vignettes expounding on loneliness, freedom, and the heaven and hell within us all. Listen to Dissect on Spotify and get episodes a week early and access to exclusive bonus episodes. Follow @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short, digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today, we continue our serialized examination of blonde by Frank Ocean. On our last episode, we dissected the album's third track, Pink and White. There, Frank shared some childhood memories of New Orleans, while expressing the lessons he learned about acceptance, and exhibiting an overall appreciation of life in general. As the album continues, Frank receives a message from, from a familiar voice.

Many college students have gone to college and gotten hooked on drugs, marijuana, and alcohol. Listen, stop trying to be somebody else. Don't try to be someone else. Be yourself and know that that's good enough. Don't try to be someone else. This interlude titled Be Yourself features a voice of Rosie Watson. Of course, Rosie was a star of the skit, not just. money from Frank's debut album, Channel Orange.

As you might remember, Rosie Watson is not Frank's mother as some have thought, but instead the mother of Frank's friend, Jonathan. Rosie's presence on blonde is used in a similar manner to Channel Orange. She represents adulthood and the mothering life lessons we hear in our youth. On Be Yourself, Rosie discourages the use of drugs and alcohol, a common parental message we hear growing up. But the heart of her message, as the track title suggests, is authenticity. She discourages the use of drugs because it distances us from who we truly are. She says, quote, don't try to be someone else, be yourself, and know that's good enough. Don't try to be someone else.

Don't try to be like someone else. Don't try to act like someone else. Be yourself. Be secure with yourself. Rely and trust upon your own decisions, on your own beliefs, unquote. And while there's a comedic aspect to the voice. smell, there's definitely utility in her advice. As we've heard and will continue to hear, Blonde is largely about youth and young adulthood, a transformative time in which we experiment,

try on different identities, and attempt to find and come to turns with who we are. Rosie understands the naivety and highly impressionable nature of adolescents, and encourages us to be strong enough to withstand peer pressure, to be strong enough to believe in ourselves, even when our beliefs are at odds with our peers. Be yourself is the first of a handful of interludes that will feature this underlying principle of identity and authenticity. It also introduces a reoccurring musical motif that will return in each interlude. The theme is drawn from a sample of a piece called Running Around by Buddy Ross. Buddy Ross has been Frank's live keyboardist since 2012 and contributes to a handful of tracks

on both blonde and endless. Regarding this reoccurring keyboard theme, Ross told Pitchfork, quote, There's one thing I did the first day I was in with him back in 2013. That was so long ago, but then hearing the record when it came out, he uses that repeating theme through all the interludes and the closing out of the record, like under Be Yourself and Facebook Story. I almost forgot I gave it to him, and it ended up being a reoccurring theme, which is super cool, just to hear it on the day it came out, being in there, unquote.

Let's hear a bit of running around, the piece from which the keyboard riff was taken. A fragment of this piece is looped to create the backing music featured on Be Yourself. As Blonde progresses into its next track solo, we notice that Frank uses Rosie's lectures in a similar way on both blonde and Channel Orange. On not just money, Rosie speaks about the importance and value of money, and on the next track, super-rich kids, Frank sings of recklessly spending money on weed, alcohol, and women. With the be-yourself interlude, Rosie warns against and discourages drug use, and on blonde's next track solo, Frank references doing a number of substances including acid and weed. In both cases, the juxtaposition between Rosie, the maternal voice of responsibility and adulthood, and Frank, a voice portraying youthful rebellion, helps to render the stubbornness of adolescence, a kind of rolling of the eyes we all give our parents when torturing us with lectures and life lessons.

To get a sense of this juxtaposition, let's listen to the last moments of Be Yourself, followed by the opening moments of solo. Do not smoke marijuana. Do not consume. alcohol do not get in the car with someone who is inebriated. This is mom call me bye. Hand me a towel I'm dirty dancing by myself gone off tabs of that acid form me a circle watch my jagger might lose my jacket and hit a solo one time we too

loud in public then police turn down a function now we outside and the time is perfect forgot to tell you gotta tell you how much i vibe with you And we don't got to be solo. Solo was written by Frank Ocean in Malay. The song's production was handled by Ocean and James Blake. Blake also plays the keyboard on the track, along with Mars of the group 1500 or Nothing. Thematically, the song centers around different interpretations of the word solo,

from the loathomeness of being single to the independence and security of going it alone. Frank develops this multifaceted view of solo through a series of brief four-line lyrical vignettes that comprise the song's two verses. Frank cleverly applies this solo theme musically as well. The track features just one organ as a song's solo instrument. As we just heard, Frank opens the track with the lines, hand me a towel, I'm dirty dancing by myself, gone off tabs of that acid, form me a circle, watch my jagger, might lose my jacket, and hit a solo.

Here we get a scene expressing the freedom of drug use, specifically the uninduced, inhibiting effects of acid or LSD that allows Frank to dance freely by himself at first, and then in the center of a circle formed by his friends. There's a careless, untempered feeling in this scene, expressing the liberty and joy of youth. We also get some nice wordplay with Watch by Jagger Might Lose My Jacket, a reference to Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. McJagger is known for his dance moves when performing live, and he commonly dons extravagant jackets that are typically taken off by the performances end, leaving him shirtless. There's also speculation that this opening verse is a clever reference to masturbation,

a thing one typically does when alone. Though I'm not entirely sold on the legitimacy of this claim, there is a compelling case made for it due to the number of possible double entendres the verse contains. Hand me a towel refers to the towel you use to clean up, dirty dancing being the masturbation act itself. Form me a circle, a reference to circle jerking. Jack it, a play on Jack it. And Jagger, a play on jagging off.

Again, I'm not entirely sure about this interpretation, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway. The verse continues with the second vignette, We Too Loud in Public, then police turn down the function. Now we outside and the timing's perfect. Forgot to tell you, got to tell you how much I vibe with you, and we don't got to be solo. Here Frank uses solo to outline a scene in which he expresses his feelings for someone in a moment of calm after a party they were attending was shut down. He says, and we don't got to be solo, meaning they don't have to be solo, meaning they don't have to be alone. They can be together. It's here we get the first real allusion to the double meaning of the word solo. Solo, S-O-L-O, can also be heard as two words, So-L-O-S-O-S-O-S-S-E space L-O-W.

When we hear the phrase this way, Frank is implying that they don't have to be so low, don't have to be so lonely or sad because they could have each other. The first verse continues with two additional vignettes. Right now I prefer yellow red bone so mellow fuck wrong be cutting you Think we were better off solo I got that act ride in the windy city that night No trees to blow through but blow me and I owe you two grams when the sunrise Smoking good rolling solo Solo solo

Solo solo Frank sings, Now stay away from highways, my eyes like them red lights. Right now I prefer yellow, red bones so mellow. Fuck round, be cutting you. Think we were better off solo. Here Frank uses roads and stoplight imagery to express his drug use and sexual preference. Highways and eyes like them red lights cleverly refers to being high on weed.

Right now I prefer yellow, red bone so mellow, has multiple meanings. Yellow and red bone are both slaying for light skinned or mixed black women or men, which his character apparently prefers at the moment. These lines also continue the stoplight metaphor already established, as in yellow light. Frank wants to take things slow, he's being cautious, tying back into the first line, now stay away from highways. This take it slow thread is continued as the vignette concludes, fuck around, be cutting you, think we are better off solo. Cutton is slang for sex, and it would seem that Frank's character was just interested in fooling around, not a committed relationship.

Cutin' you then takes on a double meaning of its own, both for having sex and breaking up with this person, as again he wants yellow lights, somewhere between green and red, somewhere between alone and in a committed relationship, where one can enjoy casual sex, but can remain independent or solo. Frank sings the verse's last vignette,

I got that act right in the windy city that night, no trees to blow through, but blow me and I owe you two grams when the sunrise, smoking good roll in solo. Again, there's some clever wordplay happening here. Act right is another slang term for sex, and Windy City is the nickname of Chicago, Illinois. Frank plays off Windy City,

saying there's no trees or weed to blow through, and then tells whomever he's with that if they blow him, he'll get them two grams of weed in the morning. The kind of twist comes with the final lines, smoking good, rolling solo. On the surface, it means rolling a solo as in a solo joint, but it also refers to the transactional nature of this sexual encounter, a blowjob for weed and in the morning they separate,

as Frank's character is now rolling solo. Also, oral sex is most enjoyable for the person on the receiving end, again accentuating the casual transactional nature of this encounter. Solo continues with the song's hook, but for now, I'd like to skip ahead to the second verse in which these series of vignettes continue. I'm skipping showers and switching socks, sleeping good and long.

Bones feeling dense as fuck Wish a nigga would cross And catch a solo On time White leaf on my boxers Green leaves turn the vapors for the low And that mean cheap Cause ain't shit free and I know it

Even love ain't because it's nuck cost That clinic killed my soul But you gotta hit the pussy roto Now yo baby mama ain't so vicious Frank sings I'm skipping showers And switching socks Sleeping good and long bones feeling dense as fuck, wish a N. N. Wood would cross and catch a solo.

Here Frank portrays a single man ignoring hygiene and sleeping good because he's alone. He's solo. Doesn't have anyone to impress. Apparently feeling invincible, he hopes to get into a fight and punch someone as catching a solo is slaying for a single punch knockout. Beneath the surface, though, this passage may have a double meaning of loneliness and depression. Sleeping all day and lack of self-care like hygiene can be indicators of depression. Because this person lacks a sex life, he's full of testosterone. Combine that with being unhappy, and it's no wonder he's looking to take his sadness out on someone in a fight. Frank continues, Whiteleaf on my boxers, green leaf turned to vapors for the low, and that mean cheap, because ain't shit free and I know it.

Again, wordplay on weed. Here it's an inexpensive weed bought by someone who seems to be in poverty. Greenleaf turned to vapor is a play on both the act of smoking marijuana, as one sets fire to green lease and and hails vapors, and on the money being spent on that weed, as his green bills disappear into nothing, leaving him broke. This threat of money is continued as Frank sings, because ain't shit free and I know it, even love ain't because this nut cost, that clinic killed my soul, but you got to hit the pussy raw though. Due to the unprotected sex this character had, he was forced into a costly abortion. But despite the threat of money in this vignette, Frank chooses to say, that clinic killed my soul. abortion clinics are often free for those in poverty,

so the hit was on the character's soul, his spirit, which may be the reason he's looking to get high. Frank could also be using soul to allude to the unborn child being killed, as the narrator could feel like the baby was part of or a product of his soul. Frank plays up this pregnancy scene as the second verse continues. You gotta hit the pussy roto. Now your baby mama ain't so vicious. All she want is her pick a fence and you protest and you pick a sign with them calls.

Frank sings won't side with you, won't let you fly solo. I wanted that act right in Colorado that night. I brought trees to blow through, but it's just me and no use. Stayed up until my phone died. Smoking big rolling. Solo.

Frank sings, Now your baby mama ain't so vicious. All she want is her picket fence. And you protest and picket sign, but them courts won't side with you, won't let you fly solo. Not being quote unquote solo here is the fact that this character is now attached to his baby's mother by law through child support payments and visitation. Frank concludes verse 2 by mirroring the conclusion of verse 1.

There we heard Frank say, I got that act right in the windy city that night. No trees to blow through. Here on verse 2, he says, I wanted that act right in Colorado that night. I brought trees to blow through. Of course, there's a distinct difference in the verses aside from the differing cities. In verse 1, Frank got that act right. He got sex. In verse 2, Frank's character wanted that act right. He wanted sex. And he even has weed this time around. But now he's alone, as signaled in the lines, but it's just me and know you, stayed up till my phone died, smoking big, rolling solo. Unlike the exchange of sex for weed in verse 1, this final vignette is one of extreme loneliness. He stays up until his phone dies waiting on someone who never comes. So he's smokes the weed alone. Just like verse one, he ends saying, Rolling Solo. But whereas that was a welcome sentiment in verse 1, here our character's rolling solo is involuntary, one of rejection and

abandonment. Smoking weed in this case could be attempt to numb the pain of being alone, or feeling solo. And it's here that we'll dive into Solo's hook, which offers a meta view on the vignettes Frank illustrates on the song's verses. In hell, in hell there's heaven. There's a bull in a mattidore doling in the sky. In hell in hell, there's heaven. Frank sings, it's hell on earth and the city's on fire. And hell in hell there's heaven.

It's a brilliantly constructed couplet, rich with meaning. Frank begins with outlining a kind of apocalypse scene, saying it's hell on earth and the cities on fire. Despite its imagery, we take this to be non-literal. That is representative of the current. conflict-ridden state of the world, and or they inherit suffering of existence. He then says, In hell there's heaven, perhaps implying that despite the fundamentally tragic state of life, there are still moments of bliss and extreme beauty to be found if we're willing to seek them out.

On Blonde's previous two tracks, Ivy and Pink and White, we heard this sentiment put into practice. Both songs outline potentially disheartening or embittering situations, but Frank chooses to highlight small moments of beauty within those tragic situations. Of course, given all the talk of marijuana throughout Solo's verses, we have to assume Frank also means inhale, as in breathe in smoke and get high. This explains the repetition, inhale, inhale, there's heaven. You can hear it, inhale, there's heaven, or inhale, there's heaven. In the latter interpretation, heaven is the euphoria of being high and escaping the hell or suffering of your life. Frank continues to duality as he sings, there's a bull and a matador dueling in the sky. This refers to Taurus and

Orion, two constellations that sit next to each other in the night sky. The constellation Taurus, Latin for bull, is shaped like a horned bull, and has been the inspiration for many mythological stories across various cultures. Of note in the context of Solo's Hook, many cultures refer to Taurus as the Bull of Heaven. The constellation Orion is often portrayed as a hunter or warrior, holding a shield and sword. In Frank Solo, of course, Orion is portrayed as a matador with a cape and a sword. It would seem Frank is using Taurus and Orion, a bull and a matador, to illustrate the duality of heaven and hell, of good and evil, and how the interaction of these two opposing forces are fundamental principles of nature. Specifically, that interaction is one of conflict, as Frank is saying, dueling in the sky.

This eternal conflict is built right into the very structures of the cosmos. It's illicit. illustrated in the sky above us like a blueprint of eternal wisdom, an everlasting reminder of the good and evil within all of us, and the push-pull relationship of our own internal heaven and hell. On solo, it would seem Frank is commenting on the calibration of good and evil, that life itself is a constant refinement of good and evil. The seeds of both are clearly within us, and you can live in such a way to cultivate good, or you can live in such a way that cultivates evil. When we hear the song's hook as meta-commentary on the vignettes of the verses, which we already pointed out, are rich with dualistic double meanings, we hear the term solo being used metaphysically.

One can be solo as an independent or free, but one can also be so low, as in dejected or lonely. The characters of the verses all use drugs as a means to a different end. Some take them recreationally, others use them medicinally, as an attempt to ease their suffering. As Frank often does, he presents these stories and principles without judgment. Rather, through personal experience and observation, he seems to bear witness the conditions of the human experience with a contemplative detachment, less interested in critical judgment, and more interested in an objective study of the strange and mystifying motivations of mankind. Solo, it's hell on earth and the city's on fire. In hell, in hell, there's heaven.

There's a bull in a matador doling in the sky. I'll be right back, right after the break. Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we discussed the hook of solo, which we found rich with metaphysical meaning. We're going to now spend the rest of today's episode on the brief but extremely moving wordless melody Frank belts into the ether just after the song's hook. I'm not sure about you, but when I hear something as beautiful, as this, I typically give up any attempt to try to describe it with words. In many ways, it's beyond description, or beyond description that could express with any

accuracy its emotional power. It's of course one of those succinct moments in music that categorically exemplify the transcendent power of music. But when thinking about this passage, I did begin to wonder just what about the human voice has the ability, arguably more than any other instrument, to sound so beautiful, to connect the deepest and most abstract part of our being. Specifically, I started to wonder about two things. The first is, what makes one voice more beautiful than another? Is there a scientific or physiological reason that, for example, Frank Ocean, beyond the no-tze singing, sounds so good? It turns out

the answer to this question is yes and no, and I found it pretty fascinating. Over 300 million years ago, the first sea creature has ventured out of the water and onto land. Rather than gills, they use lungs to breathe. Air was ingested through their mouths, traveled through a narrow passage down to the lungs. Controlling that narrow passage are two vocal folds, otherwise known as vocal cords. Found in the larynx and typically less than an inch in length,

these two small folds of muscles covered by skin open and close like valves, allowing air into the respiratory system. Over time, lung-bearing animals, including humans, figured out these vocal cords could be manipulated to create sound. to create sound. Specifically, if air rushes through them and you tighten the fold so that air escapes more slowly, the vocal folds flap around and vibrate, releasing energy that creates what we interpret as sound. Curtis's wrist of Discover Magazine compares this phenomenon to air

rushing out of a blown-up balloon. The flaps of the balloon at its open end waver together rapidly as the air attempts to rush through it. The same thing happens with our vocal flaps. It's a process known as phonation. We forcefully push air from our lungs, we tighten our vocal cords so that they flap around and restrict the flow of that air, creating sound. At first, these sounds were used to warn of incoming threats or to attract a mate. But over time, humans cultivated and learned to manipulate our vocal cords in combination with our tongues and lips to produce a wide array of sounds. Humans alter the pitch of their voice by manipulating how fast or slow our vocal cords collide or vibrate. As air is pushed out, the vibes, the vibrates

of the vocal folds alternatively trap air and then release it, and each little puff of air released is the beginning of a sound wave. The pitch of a sung note is determined by how fast or slow those puffs of air are released. The slower the release, the longer the sound wave, and the lower the pitch. Conversely, the faster the vibration, the faster the air is released, and the shorter the sound wave, and the higher the pitch. For example, if the vocal folds vibrate at a rate of 262 times a second, you get a middle C. At 66 times a second, you get a low A. At 1,046 times a second, you get a high C. A singer's ability to stay on pitch or to sing in-key has to do with how accurately they're able to create these vibration rates. One's vocal tone or timbre, that is how their voice actually sounds, is dependent on a unique mixture of the length and thickness of their vocal quake.

chords, the physical size and shape of their vocal tract, trachea, throat, tongue, mouth, sinuses, and the rest of the respiratory system. These things combine to create the unique color or timbre of your voice. As a consequence, we have little control over the way our voice sounds, in the same way we have little control over the natural color of our hair, or the shape of our nose or size of our feet. And so while we can improve our pitch accuracy with practice and training, in the same way anyone can improve how well they shoot a basketball, we're somewhat limited in how the pitch is actually sound, in the same way we're not all six foot eight and built like LeBron James.

This is the reason behind the yes and no answer to the question I posed in the beginning of this segment. Frank Ocean sounds beautiful, both because the timbre of his voice, the thing that he was born with, and the accuracy and skill he exhibits when using that voice, the thing he likely worked very hard to improve and control. It's that magic combination of gift and grit, natural ability and work ethic that allows something as beautiful as the wordless passage of solo to exist in the world. Now the second thing I began to think about when analyzing this section has to do with the physical feeling I get when listening to it. Specifically, this section very often gives me the chills.

That is, a tingling sensation soars through my body often accompanied with goosebumps. And according to the science, the brain's dopamine or reward system is activated when this occurs, the same system that reacts positively to good food or sex or even drugs like cocaine and heroin. This is a strange phenomenon in relation to music if you think about it, and that's exactly what I began doing after listening to this passage. What's happening neurologically when one hears an especially moving moment of music and gets the chills? It turns out the answer to this question is pretty interesting too. Roughly half to two-thirds of you listening have experienced chills when hearing a piece of music.

That's what the stats say, anyway. There's even now a term for the phenomenon, Frisian. Frisian is a French word meaning aesthetic chills. While music is a common inducer of Frisian, you can also experience it when viewing a scene in a movie, reading a poem, or looking at a piece of art. While the causes of musical Frisian have been studied, it's a somewhat complex topic and research is ongoing. But there are some common findings across multiple studies I'd like to hone in on. Specifically, I'd like to focus on the types of musical elements that seem to increase the likelihood of someone experiencing Frisian.

Unexpectedness seems to be the common through line, that is, unexpected harmonies, a sudden increase in volume, the abrupt entrance of a new voice or instrument, surprising deviations and melody like an abrupt high note, or sustained tension followed by a satisfying resolution. All of these techniques defy our expectations. They surprise us, triggering frision because they violate our assumptions of where a piece of music is going in a dramatic, positive, and pleasurable way. Let's hone in on a specific technique that will help exemplify these quote-unquote unexpected moments in music. A study showed that something called the appoggiatura is statistically the most frisian-inducing musical technique.

An impagetura is an ornamentation that accents an unexpected note outside its harmonic. accompaniment, only then to resolve to the expected note. I know that's pretty abstract for most of you, so let's hear a quick example. What I just played is a C major chord. It's your run-of-the-mill chord in Western music. It contains three notes, C, E, and G. Now when adding a melody on top of this chord, the notes that will sound the most at home are C, E, and G. Makes sense, right? Those notes are part of the chord structure, so of course those notes are going to sound good in a melody. These called consonant notes. Now music would be pretty boring if all composers did was write consonant notes. Dissinance, that is melodic notes that fall outside the chordal harmony,

are strategically used to create tension, which is then released when the melody uses one of those consonant notes. Dissant note, consonant note. Dissinant, consonant. Okay, so the appoggiatura. An An appositora is a strategic and specific use of this tension and release, of dissonance and consonants. It occurs when a dissonant melodic note, the note outside the chord being played, falls on the downbeat and is therefore accented. That dissonant non-cord note is then resolved into the expected consonant note, either a half or full step above or below the dissonant note being played. Downbeat dissonant note, resolution into consonant note. Downbeat dissonance Resolution

There's some other technical requirements of an appoggatura that I'm not going to go into because for our purposes today we're really just interested in this tension and release. What makes an appoggiatur so powerful is that the tension happens on the downbeat. We typically expect consonants on downbeats, so when that doesn't occur, it's unexpected. It produces tension,

and it's accented tension because it's happening on a strong beat, on a point of emphasis. That potent little bundle of tension is then released when the dissonant note moves to the consonant note. It's a kind of delayed gratification, which we all know can be some of the best and most rewarding kinds of experiences. A song that seems to always give me chills is In My Life by The Beatles. As it turns out, the song contains a handful of appoggiaturas. Here. Here. Here. Here.

Again, just for emphasis, I'll play a few of these on the piano. the first chord you hear in the song is an F major comprised of the notes FAC. John Lennon begins a song with a solo pickup on the words There Are, singing the notes C and D. On the word places, the F major chord comes in, but Lennon sings a G, a note not included in the F major chord. That dissonance is resolved when the G moves down to an F, on the second half of the word places. And now the entire phrase. Again, we're getting pretty granular here, But these are the types of compositional tools that evoke emotion and sometimes frision. It's the unexpected followed by the expected, tension and release, delayed gratification.

We can also find a pageturas in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Here. Here. Here. Here. We also find them in Adele someone like you. Here. Here.

Here. Here. Here. Someone like you has been used in several recent articles to exemplify Frisian triggers in music. And it's for good reason, because the song is full of them. Aside from the appoggiatura, it also contains an inharmonic change, that is, a note that is sustained, while the chords beneath that sustained note change, which forces reinterpretation of that sustained note, creating a moment that's, and here's the key word, unexpected.

In this passage, Adele sustains a note F on the word U, while the chords below her shift from an F major to D minor. Have another listen. That's an inharmonic shift. Now on the second repetition of this same phrase, Adel strategically adds some variation, creating another even more fridion triggering moment. Because we've already heard that inharmonic shift on the first pass, doing the same trick again would be expected and therefore less effective when the passage repeats. So rather than holding that sustained F when the chords change, Adel jumps to a high A.

This becomes an incredibly powerful moment for a number of reasons. Not only does it defy our expectations of hearing the same inharmonic shift again, it also utilizes a dramatic and unexpected shift in vocal range, a technique that on its own is known to induce Frisian. Essentially, we're getting hit with the Frisian double whammy. defying our expectations of repetition, and a sudden shift in vocal register. This is all accentuated, of course, by the emotional impact of the lyrics, and Adele's beautiful voice and the accuracy of execution.

Let's listen again to this passage in full, hearing again the inharmonic shift on the phrase, someone like you, and the jump in vocal register on Best for You. And it's here we can loop back to the passage that began this, deep dive in the first place, Frank Ocean's solo. Given our newfound education and frisian, let's take a closer look at the passage in question. First, let's consider what we've heard in the song before this moment occurs. The verses of solo aren't very melodic. They're performed in a half-sung, half-wrap manner, and there's a lot of words being said in a short amount

of time. When the chorus hits, watch my jagger might lose my jacket and hit a solo one time. When the chorus hits, Frank unexpectedly shifts

to a melodic, elongated delivery style and the amount of words per measure decreases drastically. Solo. It's hell on earth and the city's on fire.

Inhale, in hell, there's heaven. There's a bull and a matadadour after the song's hook comes the wordless and for me, Frisian triggering passage.

Frank unexpectedly climbs higher in his vocal register and increases the amount of notes delivered, making the passage more complex and less predictable than the hook that just came before it. Now on the repetition of this phrase, Frank makes one minor but dramatic change. Midway through the repeat, he unexpectedly shifts into his falsetto voice, hitting a series of extremely high notes. This is exactly what Adele did on the second time through of the hook of someone like you. knowing the phrase would be predictable if repeated verbatim, a small but crucial variation is made, thus playing with our expectations, creating a dramatic and ultimately pleasurable surprise. Again, it's a frisian double whammy, avoiding a predictable repetition and an extreme jump in vocal

register. Let's hear again the entire passage and listen for that moment when Frank goes high the second time through. Wouldn't you know, it's precisely when Frank hits those high notes that for me often triggers Frisian. We have a more melodically subdued verse that builds into a more elongated hook, which itself built up to this wordless passage that suddenly increases the number of notes, jumps into a higher vocal register, and in its repetition, strays from our melodic expectations as well as jumps even higher and even more suddenly into a falsetto voice.

All these things combined to create a more. moment that for me, and perhaps some of you, triggers Frisian. Now there's another aspect of frisian that I'll briefly mention only because it applies to you specifically. A study conducted by Mitchell Culver of Utah State University showed that those high in the Big Five personality trait openness to experience are more likely to experience Frisian. The aspect of openness to experience that seems responsible for Frisian are the cognitive components like imagination and intellectual curiosity. People higher in these traits are more likely to, quote, intellectually immerse themselves in music rather than just letting it flow over them, unquote. And it seems people that do this,

according to Colver, quote, might experience Frisian more often and more intensely than others, unquote. Because you're listening to this podcast, I'm assuming you're both intellectually curious in general and probably more curious than most about music specifically. It's likely then that you're one of these people who immerse himself in music, and therefore are more likely to experience Frisian. So bearing in mind everything we just discussed, the evolutionary history of sound produced by humans, the mystery of vocal timbre, Frigion and the musical techniques that inspire it, and even the metaphysical discussion of good and evil and the timeless internal conflict of mankind. Baring all that in mind, let's listen again to Frank Ocean's solo.

on fire. Inhale, inhale, there's heaven. There's a bull and a matted door doling in the sky. Inhale, inhale, there's heaven. Yep, chills every time. I'll talk to you next week.