Frank Ocean – Brixton Academy, London 09/07/13

There’s a moment that comes during Frank Ocean’s second song this evening, the first of two back-to-back sold-out London shows, where the entire crowd responds to his line “Cocaine for breakfast” with its shout-back retort “Yikes!”. It stands as the most bizarre and brilliant highlight of the gig as a whole, perfectly demonstrating the kind of idolisation that the R&B musician evokes in his fans.

There are several moments that see Ocean drowned out in such hero-worship, with the crowd’s collective voice louder than his own. He’s even booed in fits of passion when announcing the next song to be his last. “That’s fucked up,” he responds with a beaming smile.

A fair criticism of the singer could be that his introversion and boy-next-door shyness doesn’t particularly adapt well when off record and onstage. Indeed, he rarely utters a word in between the songs tonight, only breaking his silence to show humbled astonishment that large pockets of the crowd know every line of his lyrics. Later on, he opens up a little bit more, explaining the show so far to be one of his all-time favourites. You can see a glint in his eye and you know he means it.

Ocean’s lack of stage presence may be a stumbling block for many, and over time that’ll surely be resolved, but for others it gives a chance to truly focus on the music on display – and when the music is delivered this sublimely, few should be needing anything else to hold their attention.

Opener ‘Feel California’, although a curious choice to start the show, being one of the couple new numbers showcased during the entire set, perfectly summarises one facet of the singer’s back-catalogue; sounding exactly like what Ocean was talking about when he described debut album Channel Orange as the colour he “perceived the summer first fell in love”. Like ‘Sweet Life’ and ‘Golden Girl’ coming later, the song characterises one part of the Californian lifestyle, the “domesticated paradise” of “palm trees and pools”.

But like Ocean’s choice of video backdrop for the entire evening, a desolate landscape depicted with a vintage car driving through the sparse desert without any aim or direction, many of Ocean’s songs involve the darker side of this seemingly idyllic world. There’s youthful hedonism (‘Super Rich Kids’), drug addiction (‘Crack Rock’) and prostitution (‘Pyramids’), to name just a handful of topics, but as good as a storyteller Ocean is – heck, he’s pretty great – his finest ability lies in his most intimate, personal songwriting.

A lot has been made of the singer’s sexuality, with Ocean revealing prior the Channel Orange’s release that large parts of the record were inspired by his falling in love with a man. “You were my first time,” he sings in ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’, “a new feel”. Luckily however, the revelation, released as an open letter on Tumblr, didn’t overshadow or distract from the artistic merit and standalone strength of the LP. Ocean’s songs about love remain brilliant not because of the biographical tid-bits we know about their construction, but their brilliancy in making love universal – not involving one sex or sexuality but encompassing all.

Ending the set with a rather subdued acoustic rendition of ‘Wise Man’, a track intended for – but never used on – the Django Unchained soundtrack, you realise that Frank Ocean is doing things completely on his own terms. It’s not a song that anybody tonight has been screaming for, hardly anyone even knows the words, but you can see that it means something to the singer himself, as he sits in the spotlight within near touching distance of the crowd. And that means more to the audience this evening than any forced or false showmanship act ever could.