Why see the world, when you got the beach

“Why see the world, when you got the beach?” It’s the most comfortable question in pop, and Frank Ocean makes it sound like a warning. “Sweet Life,” written and produced with Pharrell Williams for Channel Orange (2012), is an ode to Ladera Heights — “the black Beverly Hills” — sung from inside the bubble it’s quietly deflating.

Pharrell’s warmth is all over it: lush keys and horns that feel like landscaping, beautiful and maintained and designed so you never need to leave. Ocean sings it tenderly because he means it both ways — the sweet life really is sweet, and that’s exactly what it costs you. “The best song wasn’t the single, but you weren’t either”: the whole track works like that line, a luxury that keeps reminding you what it’s numbing. Put it on at golden hour and see if the question doesn’t start to itch.