"Nights" (sometimes styled as "Night.s") is a song by the American R&B singer Frank Ocean, released as a part of his second studio album Blonde (2016). The track debuted at number 98 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, despite not being released as a single. In August 2024, a version of the song featuring Kendrick Lamar leaked online.[1][2]
Music
"Nights" is a two-part track.[3] The first part is an upbeat guitar driven section in which Ocean raps about a tedious nine to five job and the highs and lows of a previous relationship.[4][5][6] In the ending of the first verse, Ocean moves away from the past, and discusses his anger with letting a relationship go.[3][7] At 3:30 in the song, the halfway point in the album, the beat switches.[8][9] The second half of the song features a slower, synth-heavy beat.[4] Ocean raps about the struggles he dealt with in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which forced him to temporarily relocate from New Orleans to Houston.[10][11]
Critical reception
Luke Winstanley of Clash wrote that "Nights" featured "superb, instantly memorable codas that will quickly worm their way into your subconscious."[12] Writing The Music's review of Blonde, James d'Apice called "Nights" the album's standout track.[13]Okayplayer's Heven Haile listed "Nights" as Ocean's 6th best song and called its beat switch "iconic."[14] Writing for Pitchfork, Ryan Dombal called "Nights" the centerpiece of Blonde.[15] Jonah Weiner of Rolling Stone called the track a standout, writing on its themes of romance: "He approaches the subject from oblique angles, time-shifting the different phases of relationships like he’s got them loaded on DVR: skipping from the blossoming of love directly into its demise, backing up a bit, leaving out big chunks."[16]
