Fans are either going nuts over the new Ocean material or are still unabashedly airing their (Frankly) justified frustrations.
Advertisement
Fans have been eagerly awaiting a sophomore album from Ocean for the past four years.
Ocean announced the title for his follow-up album – Boys Don’t Cry – three years ago, but Rolling Stone reported on Thursday night that the “Thinkin Bout You” singer has scrapped the name in favor of a new title.
The wait is finally over, Frank Ocean has finally released his new visual album, Endless-which is exactly what the wait felt like!
The list of Ocean collaborators on Endless is long, and featured prominently are two Philadelphians: Strawberry Mansion-raised R&B powerhouse Jazmine Sullivan, who sings on four songs, and Havertown-reared indie songwriting savant Alex G., who plays guitar on four.
Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is credited as a string orchestrator on “At Your Best (You Are Love)”.
Of the 18 songs, two are ambient instrumentals. But don’t get too excited about the imagary accompanying Endless’ music. It’s intentionally tiresome and methodical, likely meant to convey the notion that making music is long, hard, piece-by-piece work, and that despite what his frustrated fans might have been thinking, Ocean hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing for the last four years. Standout lyrics like “How come the ecstasy always depresses me?” on Arca-assisted interlude “Mine” and Ocean’s ranty, freestyle-type delivery on “U-N-I-T-Y” are among the album’s most artistically impressive moments. Endless now makes that unclear. Word around the rumormill is that a second album (“Boys Don’t Cry”) could drop.
Before releasing Endless, Frank Ocean reappeared on the mysterious web stream that started broadcasting on his website boysdontcry.co earlier in August.
But the expectation for new music heated up in recent weeks after Ocean’s brother posted a photo on Instagram with the title “Boys Don’t Cry”.
Advertisement
Endless, which shows multiple Frank Oceans in the process of building a staircase, seems to bridge the gap between the confusing live stream and this weekend’s full album release.
