#Frank ocean blonde album physical for free

That being said, was the wait worth it? How well do Endless and Blonde hold up to Channel ORANGE and nostalgia, ULTRA ? Beyond that, bigger questions were posed. Fans had begged for over 4 years for a new release from Frank Ocean, and in the course of a weekend, they were treated to 2 brand new music projects and a print publication to go with it. The excitement was somewhat overwhelming.

#Frank ocean blonde album physical for free

The rollout was accompanied by physical copies of the Boys Don’t Cry publication, which included this new record, being given out for free in various locations around the world. Fans wanted more, and two days later, they got just that in the form of Frank’s second studio album proper, Blonde. The “album” was praised for its sonic diversity but was criticized for its length and structure, feeling more like b-sides to a record to come. Multitudes of fans made their way to social media to praise the Second Coming of Frank Ocean, but not everyone shared in the excitement. Debunking the idea that this was a livestream, the 45 minute video featured 18 new songs set to prerecorded footage from the aforementioned feed, condensed from its nearly 140 hour original runtime. Once the finalized structure, a spiral staircase, was completed, an accompanying “visual album” showed up on Apple Music entitled Endless.

Lasting several weeks, the black and white video feed showed Ocean constructing something in a warehouse, backed by snippets of new music. After countless delays, a mysterious Apple Music livestream showed up on Ocean’s website. Fast forward one year later and hopes for new material were renewed. Some had assumed that Frank was taking his time perfecting his sophomore effort while others gave up on the notion of ever hearing a follow-up to Channel ORANGE. Many had speculated that the end was in sight, only to be disappointed when August rolled around with no album or magazine. A promise of a new album in July 2015 with an accompanying magazine entitled Boys Don’t Cry appeared on his Tumblr account that April with the caption “I got two versions, I got twooo versions…”. Up until a few weeks ago, that question had taken on a different kind of meaning.Īside from a few guest appearances, Ocean had basically vanished from public eye. Despite this, the record undeniably deserved this kind of recognition, and many had wondered where Frank Ocean would go next. This is a very bold claim to make only two years into the decade, and even in 2016, only four years away from the next decade, there’s still plenty of time for more releases to earn that accolade. Earning him four Grammy nominations, one of which he won, and ending up on countless Best of 2012 lists from multiple publications, Channel ORANGE was already being called one of the best albums of the decade. The successor to his highly-praised debut mixtape nostalgia, ULTRA, the album had garnered widespread critical acclaim for its unique blending of genres (such as R&B, pop, soul, psychedelic rock, and funk) serving as the backdrop for unconventional lyricism regarding class, longing, unrequited love, and sexuality. Anticipation for the follow-up to Frank Ocean’s Channel ORANGE has been at an all-time high for quite some time now.