Psychoanalytical Interpretation of Ivy

The song begins with a metallic guitar riff, soon enough Frank Ocean joins in, singing of a failed relationship. This song is from Ocean’s album Blonde, and is one of my favorite songs. The way that he conveys emotion throughout the entire piece is very raw and visceral. He puts you in the shoes of his ex-lover, and leaves you wondering what you could have done to make him so emotionally damaged.

In this song, Frank Ocean describes a relationship where he was at first friends with the other individual, and they took it to another level by declaring their love for him, which he wasn’t ready for. He was caught off guard by the whole ordeal, and even becomes angry at the other person for ruining the friendship by taking it to a place that he felt it shouldn’t go. Both of them have to fake their emotions, Ocean has to feign love and the other individual has to show like they don’t love him, just so they can try to scavenge what’s left of their relationship. He feels as though it could have been good if he had been prepared for it all.

Frank Ocean is an artist whose career had a bit of controversy around it when he came out as gay in 2012. After he came out, he took a very long hiatus from music, and Blonde is his first solo album since being out. In Ivy, there is a very nostalgic feel to the combination of electric guitar and bass, something that seems very similar to music they would play in Stranger Things. This song is a song of past love, and perhaps this is Ocean’s way of facing the event. Although the song starts out pretty calm, we can tell that he still feels very strongly about it, because at the end of the song his edited voice is screeching, and in the final seconds he smashes what sounds like a guitar on the studio floor. He was hurt and angered by the actions of his friend, actions he felt were selfish and cost them their relationship.

He uses a shift of volume and tone in his voice to influence the audience to feel how he feels, or at least felt. The pace of the song speeds up until the second to last verse, when it slows down dramatically and the words he emphasizes are words very fueled by emotion, like “love” and “feelings”. The volume, however, just increases gradually, until it all crashes down when he slams the guitar against the floor. The changes in volume, pace, and tone of the song all emotionally involve the audience to feel Ocean’s pain and his anger about the events that occurred in his past.

Frank Ocean’s song Ivy is incredibly emotionally charged, and Ocean shows his anger and sadness that losing a relationship with a friend in his past has caused. To convey these feelings to the audience, he increases the volume and the tone of the song to help the audience empathize with his emotions.