“Nights” by Frank Ocean

"Nights" is the hinge of Blonde, Frank Ocean's second album, from 2016: at 3:30 in, which lands on the record's halfway point, the beat flips and the song turns into something else. The first half is guitar-driven and restless, Ocean rapping about a grinding nine-to-five and the ups and downs of an old relationship before turning to his anger at letting it go. The second half sinks into a slower, synth-heavy beat as he looks back on the hard times after Hurricane Katrina forced him out of New Orleans to Houston for a while.

Ocean produced it with Buddy Ross, Michael Uzowuru and Vegyn, and the writing credit goes to Christopher Breaux, Uzowuru and Vegyn; Jon Brion, Ross and Vegyn play keyboards. It never went out as a single, yet it still reached the Hot 100 at 98.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.