Frank EP
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Album Summary
Liv.e — born Olivia Olivia, out of Dallas, Texas — dropped the 'Frank EP' in 2017 as a fully self-produced independent release, laid down with that bedroom intimacy and DIY spirit that only somebody truly in love with the craft can pull off. Recorded consistent with her hands-on, self-producing approach, this project came to life during a formative stretch when Liv.e was carving out her identity deep in the Dallas underground music scene, long before the wider world caught on to what she was doing. No major label machinery behind it — just raw talent, a vision, and the kind of lo-fi soul atmosphere that wraps around you like late-night air. Seven tracks, pressed into the world quietly, that would go on to mean everything to those who found them.
Reception
- The 'Frank EP' moved through underground and independent R&B circles the way the best music always does — by word of mouth, passed between people who knew, never touching the mainstream charts but landing hard where it counted.
- Early listeners and tastemakers recognized the EP as a striking introduction to Liv.e's voice and production sensibility, laying the groundwork for the devoted cult following she would continue to build in the years ahead.
- Formal critical coverage was sparse at the time of release, but in the years since, the project has been revisited and appreciated as a foundational document in understanding where Liv.e's artistry began and how far she has always been ahead of the curve.
Significance
- The 'Frank EP' stands as one of the earliest recorded artifacts of Liv.e's self-produced, genre-dissolving sound — a sound that fuses neo-soul, lo-fi R&B, and experimental texture in ways that prefigured what independent Black music would grow into across the following decade.
- This project places Liv.e squarely within the culturally vital mid-2010s wave of DIY bedroom soul artists — and more specifically, self-determined Black women producers — who bypassed traditional label infrastructure entirely and built something real on their own terms.
- As one of her earliest releases, the 'Frank EP' is historically significant for anyone tracing the origins of Liv.e's singular sonic identity, one rooted in raw emotional intimacy, unconventional song structure, and a production voice that was already fully her own.
Tracklist
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A1 Come In —
2:39
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A2 OMM —
3:10
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A3 Clouds (Interlude) —
1:48
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A4 93 —
4:36
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B1 Freshsunburns (Fade Away) —
3:36
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B2 Needyougone —
2:43
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B3 UNFOLD pt.1 —
Artist Details
Liv.e is a Dallas, Texas-born singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who emerged in the late 2010s with a sound so rich and layered it feels like neo-soul, jazz, and experimental R&B got together for a late-night session and just never went home. Her 2020 debut album *Couldn't Wait to Tell You...* put the whole industry on notice, showcasing a deeply personal, lo-fi-tinged artistry that drew comparisons to Erykah Badu while carving out a lane that was entirely her own. As a Black woman producing and writing her own work with raw emotional honesty, Liv.e stands as a vital voice in the modern soul underground, carrying the torch of spiritual, self-authored Black music into a new generation.
