A fan of Frank Ocean’s Nostalgia/Ultra album, I was never fond of this opening track – a take on Coldplay’s Strawberry Swing that ends with a snooze alarm for just that bit too long (fading in and out over the last minute of the song).

It was only recently however – when I was playing the album loudly through a decent soundsystem – that I came to appreciate this particular detail. An album based on the theme of nostalgia, Ocean recounts the fondness of his childhood memories from within a dream.. (a theme of blurring dreams into narrative that resonates with the twice referenced film Eyes Wide Shut)

Snooze alarms, like office-phone ringtones, are set to a certain pitch that irks you to stop the noise – waking you up or answering the call. So when this part of the track came on over the speakers, I rushed to my Ipod to skip to the next track… an impulse that I have since found to be engrained in my muscle memory when hitting my alarm off come the vulgar morning chirps of my phone. It placed me into the song – the narrative of Ocean waking up resentfully out of his dream to the rest of his album.

Still don’t like the song, but appreciate it a little more.