novacane by frank ocean

frank ocean. 

i could leave this post here. this man is a whole poet.

‘Novacane’ by Frank Ocean- Album Cover

the song novacane (the title referring to novacaine, an anaesthetic drug used predominantly by dentists) explores frank's feelings of numbness and indifference toward what's happening around him after he becomes addicted to a girl. the title’s perfect; novacaine’s affects reflect frank’s state of mind.

throughout the first verse, he meets a 'model broad with a hollywood smile' at coachella, who affects him like a drug. frank blames her absence, or maybe simply her presence in the first place, for his emotionless state. this girl also 'said she wanna be a dentist really baaadly', which frank probably included to link the girl even further to the drug novacaine, as dentistry is one of the few fields that used the drug in its time.

'numb' is a word that is repeated, and therefore emphasised, many times in novacane's chorus. that really shows that frank feels detached, hazy and empty. he also sings 'love me now, when i'm gone love me none', insinuating cleverly that he knows what'll happen when he comes down; the numbness will return, and it'd be better for both of them if no strings were attached. this seems ironic as frank does the opposite; even when she’s gone, he’s writing songs about her effect on him.

in the second verse, once the high from both the actual drugs and his infatuation die down, frank is left in the aftermath; where he wrote this song. the bar, 'sink fulla dishes, pacin' in the kitchen, cocaine for breakfast, yikes', furthers frank's feelings of indifference. instead of reflecting or tryna work out the reason he 'can't feel a thing', he turns to something to stay high and in a state of blissful ignorance. he sees the sink fulla dishes and paces around, coked up, does anything he can in order to avoid the task staring at him and simply says ‘yikes’ instead of washing those dirty dishes; which are symbolic for his emotional baggage.

the song concludes after frank sings, "all the pretty girls involved with me, making pretty love to me, pretty. pity, pity." it's a pity to him because no matter how many girls he's surrounded by, and no matter how pretty they are, they'll never be that model broad with that hollywood smile. novacane is definitely one of my favorite songs. despite the dark, sometime depressing, undertones, the genius that is frank ocean manages to word things so captivatingly. 

“Novacane,” as opposed to "Swim Good", had more of a… it was, like, clear what I was trying to do. I was just trying to connect, or, articulate visually, the feeling of being numb. Like, the feeling of somebody trying to love you, but you can’t feel it. Like, the feeling of wanting to feel something that you can’t feel. And so it’s numbing. And a lot of things can cause that numbing. In the video, though, it was, like, some sort of topical anesthetic and a little bit of special effects. And there you have it."