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Frank Ocean recorded ‘Endless’ at Abbey Road with James Blake, Jonny Greenwood

A rep from Apple Music further added fuel to the rumor fire, saying in a statement that we should “keep an eye out this weekend for more from Frank”. Two weeks ago, he began posting odd web streams on his album’s website, boysdontcry.co, and returned last night with a live video stream to tease the album. It showcases several splotchy date stamps, including a blurred out date in July 2016, which had fans convinced the album was dropping at the end of the month-it didn’t. So let’s sort through them while we wait for his next move.

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The release of “Endless” comes as fans await his previously announced album and likely become increasingly familiar with visual albums, thanks to genre frontrunners like Beyoncé.

Of course, to stream Endless you have to watch Frank build a spiral staircase out of wooden boxes on his black-and-white Apple Music web stream. The less charitable thought would be that this roll-out seems created to maintain Ocean’s mysterious image and monumental buzz him while distracting a bit from the music itself (and, of course, making money for him and Apple). Boys Don’t Cry (or whatever it’s called now) was originally expected to release back in July 2015. Rolling Stone reported Ocean’s “Boys Don’t Cry” will be released then.

He is listed as the director, executive producer and creative director on the album, which features song titles including “Alabama”, “U-N-I-T-Y”, “Commes Des Garcons” and a cover of The Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best (You Are Love)”, which was also recorded by Aaliyah in 1994. But Ocean himself admitted he got twooo versions, and Endless’ ambition suggests the artist has plenty more ideas to share.

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“Boys Don’t Cry” will be a follow-up to the four year old album – “Channel Orange” released 2012 – was a huge hit in the music industry; it earned six Grammy Awards nominations and was acclaimed by fans and critics alike. That as yet un- or re-titled album proper is reportedly due sometime this weekend on Apple Music. In fact, of the artists who publicly spoke about Frank’s album, only James Blake is included on Endless. And if it’s too early for my definitive critique of a 45-minute audio-visual project that probably needs more time to wash over me, props to Frank Ocean for releasing the most freaky and artsy example of corporate-event pop ever. The visual album features Ocean working on a construction project complete with power tools and full protective gear.

Apple Music posts new Frank Ocean video album