I could hear half the world cringe when news broke out that Calvin Harris and Frank Ocean will collaborate. They had a good reason but not good enough.
Ocean broke away from his record label to secure freedom from commercial pressures and came out with an album free from heavy instrumentation and engineering. Yet, here he is being embraced by arguably one of dance music’s most influential DJs. Coldplay just collaborated with the Chainsmokers. Is the music world’s future JUST EDM?
But “Slide” is a testament to how genres are nothing but arbitrary classifications, existing in spectrums and evolving with the right experimentation. You would expect Calvin Harris’ EDM thumping beats to wipe away the entirety of Frank Ocean’s artistic credibility. But instead, his rhythm is subdued, perfectly complementing Ocean’s soulful voice, allowing the latter to dominate. There is Migos too but the duo is a nice-to-have add-on in an already great pairing.
One Man Anthem 