Frank Ocean’s New Song “Chanel” Is Transcendent

Frank Ocean has always found comfort in uncertainty, in the grey spaces where opposing forces blur and rob us of easy answers. He has a rare gift for connecting the emotional and experiential dots, for understanding and empathizing. On “Chanel,” his new surprise release, Ocean showcases this talent in a song that is a potent mix of the existential and the material. Over a slow, shuffling piano, he peels back the layers of his hyperactive mind, cracking open insights on everything from sexual fluidity (“My guy pretty like a girl/And he got fight stories to tell”) to the hazards of lean abuse, using a 21 Savage meme (“With a cup in a cup, Actavis/That’s a double edge, issa knife”). Some of his phrases stand alone, revealing their own little worlds, like the tourist bubble inside the Tokyo ward Shibuya or a fervent online community of fans; others uncoil, threading more elaborate stories that share morsels about his celebrity and his newfound independence. The production is understated, nearly fading away in the distance, but Ocean’s voice is a commanding presence that swells and fills the expanse. He brags in the same breath about having new money and backpacks full of unreleased collabs; for him, both are currency in the new space he’s navigating as a self-governing superstar and R&B magnate.

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