Frank Ocean's new album Endless has the greatest Apple, Sony and Samsung product placement ever
"The new Samsung Galaxy allows you to livestream your life / Livestream your life"
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Frank Ocean’s new album, Endless, has finally arrived in all its visual glory.
Follow our latest Frank Ocean album release coverage
Opening to the slightly odd “Device Control”, the robotic voice of Wolfgang Tillmans’ track contrasts heavily with Ocean’s touching cover of the Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best (You Are Luhh)”, featuring James Blake and Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood on production.
Tillmans’ track returns once more at the end of the album, featuring some very odd 'product placement', including the lyrics “With this Sony Telephone 4K video is in your palm / It is in your palm / In your palm” and “With this Apple appliance / you can capture live videos / Still motion pictures shot at high frequency”.
There’s also a shout out to Samsung and their phone, the Galaxy, in the line: “The new Samsung Galaxy allows you to livestream your life / Livestream your life / livestream your life”. The grating, industrial synths clash with the rest of the album, with Ocean himself not being credited on the track at all.
The track’s inclusion seems like a slight anomaly, yet the Turner Prize-winning German artist’s inclusion fits Endless’s aesthetic. He previously released an EP titled 2016/1986, featuring the track "Make It Up As You Go Along,” a house track with smoother synths than in “Device Control”.
Over on Genius they have all the lyrics to the track; a hard-hitting look at our obsession with streaming our lives on mobile devices.
Ocean’s album is currently streaming exclusively on Apple Music, with no current plans announced to release the album elsewhere. Here’s how to listen to the album.
Meanwhile, the ex-Odd Future member is reportedly releasing a second album this weekend, no longer titled Boys Don’t Cry. The full track listing and credits to Endless have also been released, showing all the album’s collaborators.
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