It’s starting to look like Frank Ocean is teasing the arrival of a new album.
Music fans have been waiting with bated breath for the return of Frank Ocean for the past six and a half years since the release of his albums ‘Blonde’ and ‘Endless’. Now, those fans have been given a glimmer of hope with a cryptic message from Ocean in his latest Blonded merch drop.
On the back of a promotional poster, a passage of text tells the story of a “fictitious Recording Artist” – seemingly Ocean – and a shelved 2019 photoshoot including the artist and Succession actor Jeremy Strong. The passage goes on to explain how Ocean preferred “the singles distribution model as opposed to the long-form album model,” adding that the album is “outdated” and that releasing singles is “more suited to modern consumption habits”.
However, the end of the passage hints that Ocean has now done a U-turn from favouring singles releases to preferring the album again. “The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work,” it reads.
Fans have been anticipating a follow-up to 2016’s ‘Blonde’ LP for some time, with Ocean having shared a number of one-off singles since then, including ‘DHL’ , ‘In My Room’ , ‘Cayendo’ and ‘Dear April’ . He is also due to headline Coachella 2023 in April, suggesting that new music may arrive before the show.
Frank Ocean has had a busy year, wiping his Instagram back in September, sharing previously unreleased music to soundtrack his radio show celebrating the ten-year anniversary of 2012’s ‘Channel Orange’ back in July of 2022 and reportedly foraying into films with independent studio A24 in talks to distribute the project.
Ocean has yet to confirm the news himself, but the evidence is stacking up. Fans will just have to wait and see what he has in store.
