Single Review : Frank Ocean - Super Rich Kids
- Written by Richard Wink
Winning Best International Male at the Brit Awards introduces Frank Ocean to a wider UK audience. Yet for those late to the party ‘Super Rich Kids’ could be viewed as one of those tail end singles from a brilliant album that doesn't stand strong on its own (Can anyone remember ‘Until The End of Time’ from FutureSex/LoveSounds or ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ from I am … Sasha Fierce?). Ocean, proving his talent as a songwriter, and a jaded voice for this frustrated introspective generation is able to find something profound from a superficial world.
‘Super Rich Kids’ is a contemporary version of a Jay McInerney novel, describing wealthy brats frolicking around in life of luxury; this is a song for the Rich Kids of Instagram. Working to a beat reminiscent of a sluggish version of ‘Benny and the Jets’ (a song that also poked fun at the glamorous life) Ocean tells us a tale of young folk adorned in “Polo sweats and Hermes blankets” who roll around in “daddy’s Jaguar”. Odd Future’s academic fugitive Earl Sweatshirt delivers a laid back cameo midway through.
It is when Ocean sings about “Searching for real love” that we come to see that this decadent lifestyle matters not, and that without something “real” these kids are content to contemplate suicide flippantly and drift vacantly in a gold encrusted vat of emptiness. It is another perspective on the themes of loneliness and longing that dominate Channel Orange.
