Frank Ocean, "Fake Plastic Trees"

Wow, you can really hear Frank Ocean entrancing the crowd with this version of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” that he played at the Ceder Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York City last week. When the video begins, people in the audience are talking noisily, and Ocean’s singing is strained: he misses a couple notes and misgauges the effect of his volume with the sound system’s echo. But as he progresses into the song and finds the melody, loosening up, settling into the lyrics, improvising, the room hushes and he sounds beautiful and people whoop and holler and make new noise, but this time in attentive appreciation.