His 17-track record Blonde arrived on Apple Music just days after Ocean released a 45-minute visual album called Endless. “I got twoooo versions”, the song opens, both a nod to his own cryptic announcement a year ago about his new music and possibly a clue about the singer’s intentions with this dual offering of music. As we patiently wait for a full-length album that will no longer be called Boys Don’t Cry, the Grammy Award-winning singer dropped a rather freaky visual for “Nikes” early Saturday morning (Aug. 20).
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As well as having the album inside the magazine, it also featured high-fashion photos, poems written by Ocean, some short stories, an outline for a television show and interviews with Lil’ B and Om’Mas Keith. Copies of the album come accompanied by a visual zine dubbed, Boys Don’t Cry. Titled “Endless”, it was streamed on his site and Apple Music. “I got two versions” is the opening lyric of Nikes, although we now take it to mean two very different albums to follow up his debut Channel Orange. And for eager fans living in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London, Boys Don’t Cry the magazine was also available for free at a string of pop-up shops. After four long years and many delays, the enigmatic singer has given the clamouring masses not one, but two new albums. Boys Don’t Cry (or whatever it’s called now) was originally expected to release back in July 2015. He has been teasing listeners about the release of his second album since past year.
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The visual album is available for streaming exclusively on Apple Music. 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.
