There’s been a ton of hype surrounding Frank Ocean’s new album, including a website designed to alert you the moment of the drop.
The wait is finally (sort of) over! Thursday, a surprise visual album by the renowned R&B artist Frank Ocean began streaming on Apple Music, and fans around the world instantly rejoiced upon hearing his soulful voice singing brand new material. The visual album, entitled Endless, already seems like yet another masterpiece by Ocean, but apparently, this isn’t even the album we’ve aall been waiting for years to hear.
It seemed as if new music would never come, especially when the New York Times incorrectly predicted the release this last July, but lo and behold, it’s finally here.
But, while everyone has been eagerly awaiting the album Boys Don’t Cry, which has been expected to come out since July of last year, Frank set the internet ablaze with Endless, a 45-minute visual album that was accompanied by a stream of the singer building a set of stairs from scratch. As expected, the project is both incredibly soothing and flows impeccably from start to finish.
Upon the release, confusion about whether this was what Boys Don’t Cry was supposed to be or not made rounds around the internet. But, according to Rolling Stone, Endless is just a prelude to another entirely new album that Frank Ocean is supposed to drop this weekend.
According to the production credits for Endless, Frank Ocean enlisted the help of James Blake, Sampha, Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead), and up-and-coming guitarist Alex G on the album’s instrumentation. The entire project is contemplative, aesthetically beautiful in sound, and deeply emotional, essentially everything we’ve come to expect from the masterful R&B artist. Throughout my first couple of spins, I got an instant vibe of a postmodern, stream of conscious type of record, one that definitely stands alone even without this supposed followup album that is coming this weekend. Endless is equipped with 18 tracks, some short and some long, but each of them come together to create a sonically soulful and ambient experience, one that we have all been waiting for since his Grammy-winning album Channel Orange was released in 2012.
After playing with our emotions for over a year, and effectively proving that boys do in fact cry while waiting endlessly for new Frank Ocean music, the visual album does not disappoint. Suffice to say, it’s shaping up to be the greatest weekend of all time for those who have been waiting for new Frank for, at this point, what has seemed like a lifetime. Assuming that another album is set to drop this weekend, get hyped to hear nothing but Frank Ocean’s soothing voice for the rest of the year.
Check it out here via Apple Music.
