It’s certainly been a long time between drinks for Frank Ocean fans. It’s now been six and half years since the release of Blonde and Endless and fans are just about ready to blow a gasket at the delay.
Now, fans are convinced the long-awaited record is finally on its way thanks to some classically cryptic hints from Ocean in some new merch.
Frank Ocean – ‘Pink + White’
On the back of a poster in Ocean’s latest Blonded merch drop, there is a message telling the story of how a “fictitious recording artist” (presumably… Ocean) completed a photoshoot with Succession actor Jeremy Strong in mid-2019. It goes on to discuss a number of Blonded live events that took place that year and explains they were meant to grow into a much larger global rave series – but the pandemic scuttled those plans.
This was during the period that Ocean released a bunch of singles including ‘DHL’ and ‘In My Room’, which many fans believed were building towards an album.
The message continues, outlining that during this period the “Recording Artist” believed that the album format was “outdated, and that releasing singles is more suited to modern consumption habits.”
But then the message concludes with this: “The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work.”
As fan blog blonded says, this is about “as close to an album announcement as we’ll ever get from Frank Ocean.”
Back sides of the posters from the recent Blonded merch sale tell a narrative that’s as close to an album announcement as we’ll ever get from Frank Ocean. pic.twitter.com/15nvU780No
— blonded.blog (@blondedblog) January 16, 2023
Sure, it’s cryptic, but it is classic Frank.
There’s also the thoroughly more concrete fact that he’s headlining Day 3 of Coachella this year, which would suggest that new music is on the way before the festival in April.
As always, only time will tell.
Further Reading
Frank Ocean, Bad Bunny and BLACKPINK to Headline Coachella 2023 – See Full Lineup
Love Letter to a Record: Emerson Leif on Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’
Sky Ferreira on New Album Being Delayed: “This Is Beyond Fucked Up”
