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From The Desk Of The Pack A.D.: Frank Ocean

There’s a relentlessly brooding power and bruised melodicism emanating from the Pack A.D.’s sixth full-length, Positive Thinking (Cadence), that belies the album’s cheery self-help title. Drummer Maya Miller admits that she and guitarist Becky Black intended a certain irony in the LP’s nomenclature. “It’s facetiously hopeful, which pretty much sums up our band.” says Miller. The Pack A.D. has always been foundationally blues based, with a detour into poppier territory on Do Not Engage. Over the past few albums, though, the band actively shifted toward psych rock, a major thread in the fabric of Positive Thinking. Miller will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our feature on the band.

“A tornado flew around my room before you came/Excuse the mess it made, it usually doesn’t rain in Southern California, much like Arizona/My eyes don’t shed tears, but, boy, they pour, when I’m thinkin bout you/Oh, no, no, no/I’ve been thinking bout you/You know, know, know/Do you think about me still?/Do ya, do ya, do ya?/Or do you not think that far ahead?/Because I’ve been thinking about forever.” —”Thinkin Bout You”

Miller: Channel Orange is and will always be a life-changing album for me. I haven’t had an album resonate like this in years. Is it his delivery, the poetry, the honesty? Hard to pinpoint, as any effective music should be. I have played this album on repeat and only my iTunes can verify the number, and it has never grown tired. I don’t want to do Blond any disservice, because it is a work of art as well, so I have titled this post Frank Ocean because he sends me. He really does.