It’s rare these days that a track really gets to me. This one did, however. Big time. On my subway commute home this evening I finally found the time to check out Nostalgia, Ultra, Island Def Jam artist and Odd Future affiliate Frank Ocean’s free debut album (click here to get it).

I made it about halfway through the record before I found myself coming back to track #4, “we all try,” a sentimental ballad about forgiving the transgressions of oneself and others because, in the end, we are all imperfect and “trying.” This all sounds pretty corny on paper, but the track itself remarkably avoids the cliched platitudes of like-minded R&B ballads. It’s a testament to the artist’s song writing which lets in an (ahem) ocean of ideas (political, spiritual, interpersonal) but finds order among them in one simple idea: forgiveness.

“we all try” – Frank Ocean