Check out Diamond Youth's acoustic cover of Frank Ocean's "Thinkin About You."
When we first met Baltimore/Chicago's Diamond Youth, we immediately thought of our favorite distortion-based late '90s-early '00s alt-rock bands (Muse, Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age, Stone Temple Pilots). We pretty much based this on Diamond Youth's testosterone-filled, crazy-bananas, lose-your-marbles moshy "Orange" video and every guitar-driven track on their recently released Orange EP. But little did we know that Diamond Youth had a softer side for emotionally vulnerable R&B songs, most notably Frank Ocean's heartfelt jam "Thinkin About You," which lead singer Justin Gilman has thoughtfully covered below. Now we're thinkin' about not being so quick to judge...
Watch Diamond Youth cover Frank Ocean's "Thinkin About You" after the jump.
Sitting in a dim room with only an acoustic guitar, Justin takes things down a few decibels (and octaves). "Thinkin About You" was already a minimal song, but Justin slows things down even more as he gently strums out the chords and swaps Frank's signature falsetto for a more even-keeled tone (know your limits, dude). "I love Frank Ocean's voice so much," Gilman said about his cover in a press release. "I just had to learn how to play this song. I know, it's unexpected for a rock band to cover any R&B track, but we're weird like that. We listen to Justin Timberlake, Prince, and Ace of Base too." Well, now it all makes sense! And for the record, any rock-and-roll singer with an appreciation for Ace of Base is OK by us. Carry on.
