I can.
I think this is going well. The internet is great.
Another fine contribution.
You're welcome. I figure it was as good as its predecessor. Maybe slightly better, as it wasn't wholly negative. But I'll expound because the world is dying to know.
I'm not a huge Lana Del Rey fan at all, but I do appreciate that there is a mood to her music--a compelling one. It's a little creepy, it's wholly artificial, but I don't care about that. I'm not sure I'd have liked the results of a collaboration, but I'm sure I'd have been interested in hearing them. (An A/B test would have been fantastic in that respect.)
As for Ocean, it's even trickier to see how exactly he'd have worked, especially knowing--or at least strongly suspecting--that it was "Our Special Love" he would have been on. (I think it was just referred to as "Special Love" or something in the press. It could have been different, but presumably not.) And I will say this, I don't see where him rapping over the Velveeta that song turned out to be would work at all. But of course, it might not have been that song once it was done with Ocean. Beyond that, though, it might have been interesting had he sung and helped write/produce rather than rapped, in that he's not
really a rapper any more than BW circa 1967 was a Baldwin organist. Earl Sweatshirt, one of the better rappers on this earth, good-naturedly mocked Ocean in a relatively recent interview (I'm thinking within the past year) along the lines of "Frank thinks he's a rapper now, everybody wants to be a rapper." But Ocean's voice and other musical talent might well have been a fascinating collaboration.
Or a shitty one. Like Bob Dylan's and Paul McCartney's were.
But I think if nothing else, Ocean is really talented and Del Rey has a certain amount of "it" factor to make something interesting--good or bad--happen. Which is better than trying to yet again recapture the perfect wood-block, bass harmonica blah blah blah.
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