For the past few months, Frank Ocean has been teasing fans hints at new music and news of an upcoming album. In November, he uploaded Memrise via his social media platform of choice, Tumblr. On January 16th, what would have been the 36th birthday of late R&B songstress Aaliyah, Ocean uploaded another full track to his official Tumblr, followed by a sample of a new and seemingly unrelated track.
A soulful tribute to Aaliyah, At Your Best (You Are Love) is a stripped back cover, consisting primarily of light keys, which has Ocean flexing his falsetto. Originally sung in 1976 by The Isley Brothers as a tribute to their mother, the song was covered by Aaliyah in 1994 for her debut album Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number.
Resurfacing in 2010, Aaliyah’s version of the song was sampled in Drake’s Unforgettable.
Following the dreamy echoes of Ocean’s version (which has been re-titled You Are Luhh), there is a short sample of a seemingly unrelated, unnamed track which does nothing but add to the giddy anticipation of a follow up to 2012’s Channel Orange.