
Hello?? Frank? We've been waiting for you for six years. It's been that long since Blonde was released into the universe, cementing Frank Ocean as one of our era's most iconic musicians. And while still, somehow, we will not tire of listening to Self-Control on a continuous loop when we're depressed, we're going rabid at the idea that his long-awaited follow-up record and third album could be on the horizon. Do we dare to have hope?
Last year in September, there was a rumour that Ocean was shopping his new record around to labels, which gives us the sense that he is finally ready to release something new into the universe. Energetically, it feels like we may be moving closer and closer to the third album, even if it is wishful thinking. I digress, this is everything we know about Frank Ocean's third album so far.
Is Frank in the studio?
Our rigorous investigative journalism points to yes, after Ocean said on his Apple Music show, Blonded Radio, that he's been on hallucinogens while “in the studio” during a recent episode on psychedelics. An album as the result of Frank on shrooms? Let me at it.
for an added moment of fervour, I-D reported that Rosalìa told them during her cover interview that she'd been in the studio with Ocean, so we'll be clinging onto that bit of information for dear life.
What will the album be about?
Honestly? Only the higher ups can know, but if our sniffing around is of any use, we are guessing that with the mention of psychedelics, it might be something that sounds good to people that are on them? in the aforementioned episode of Blonded Radio, Ocean sits down with an expert on microdosing for a conversation which is overlayed with an electronic instrumental produced by himself, obviously. The microdosing expert explains how vital it is to select the right track to trip to, which in his opinion, was an intrumental only piece, because the brain is essentially going at warp speed. If that's anything to go off, this could be the track he travels down. Although if he serves up an entire album without his sweet, soulful voice to cry along to, we'll be riding at dawn.
When will it come out?
Your guess is as good as mine at this point, but we do have a couple of leads: judging by how most other musicians work on their releases, we could assume that because Ocean is scheduled to play Coachella in 2023, we might have an album just before his headlining show in around 9 months. On the other hand, it's Frank Ocean, who rarely does anything in a predictable or standard way, so it's hard to make any grand statements at this point. All we can really say is that after a 6 year drought, a bit of Ocean might be on the horizon – if you get me.
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