Seven years on, where is Frank Ocean’s follow-up to Blonde?

Seven years have passed since Frank Ocean dropped Blonde, an album that solidified his status as one of greatest icons in twenty-first century music. Since then, we’ve waited patiently for his third album and fifth full-length project. Frank’s music to date, from the R&B of Nostalgia, Ultra, via the wise, pop-leaning musings of Channel Orange to the abstract nature of Endless —  has been impossible to pin down sonically, the throughline being the genius of his production and the candour of his lyrics.

In September 2021, it was reported that Frank was “shopping” his new record, having released Blonde independently on his own label Boy’s Don’t Cry. Since then, he’s headlined Coachella, dropped new Homer collections and published a book that you can buy right now. But there’s also a swirling rumour — one a former collaborator has vaguely commented on — that he is a nervous king, potentially “paralyzed” by Blonde’s success and unsure of how people will respond to the follow-up.

In preparation for whatever’s to come, here’s everything we know about Frank Ocean’s forthcoming third album and the other projects he’s working on right now.

Has Frank Ocean been in the studio?

In short: yes. We’ve known this for a while because Rosalía told us so in her spring 2022 cover feature. The Catalan artist revealed they’d been in the studio together, where gave he her a line of advice that she put into the Motomami single, “SAOKO”: “Frank tells me to open the world like a nut”.

Now we have visual evidence of this, courtesy of the above snap of Frank in London playing something (surely, presumably new) on a keyboard, guitar strewn on the floor behind him, clearly in the creative zone. But wait, there’s more. In the episode of Blonded Radio about psychedelics, Frank revealed he’d been on hallucinogens while “in the studio”. Finally, it seems like the music is on its way.

What is Frank Ocean’s new album about?

In a recent episode of Blonded Radio, Frank has a conversation with an expert on microdosing over a euphoric, electronic instrumental production he himself is responsible for. The microdosing expert waxes lyrical on the importance of selecting the right musical accompaniment for a psychedelic trip: no words, because the brain is running faster than usual. We’ve received a handful of singles over the past few years — from “Chanel” to “Biking” — that felt like traditional Frank songs but perhaps there’s a shift coming. It wouldn’t be surprising if, based on what he’s been up to, Frank returned with a record that felt like a good accompaniment to psychedelics. He’s clearly interested in them; perhaps, like parts of Endless, it’ll be a lyric-free soundtrack to a trip.

Similarly, these tracks might be part of a soundtrack Frank could be forming for his rumoured A24 movie.

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So what’s taking so long?

Frank’s perfectionist streak is surely going into overdrive the longer we wait. In an interview with the culture Substack Blackbird Spyplane, artist John Carroll Kirby — who Frank worked with on “DHL” — was presented with a rumour about Frank Ocean the writer had heard from his friends on the LA music scene: “that he feels frozen under the expectations people have put on him to follow up Blonde with a 10/10 classic. Like, he can’t bear the idea of putting something out and people going, ‘Huh, kinda mid’, and he’s paralyzed by that.” The writer asked John if he had any firsthand insight into that claim.

John responded that he’s under an NDA when it comes to his work with Frank directly, but that, commenting from the outside, he’s “a perfectionist”, adding: “I think what makes him so compelling is his volatility, and there’s a flip side to that, which is sometimes in executing deadlines, or trying to make a follow-up, or meeting expectations, there can be a volatility.” It makes sense: surely, Frank’s sitting on a bunch of music, but is perhaps still fine-tuning it as a whole body of work. “I have high hopes for whatever comes next,” John added.

What’s the next Frank Ocean album called?

This we don’t know. On Reddit, fans are hypothesising though. Frank updated his streaming service banner to a series of images of him grinning, which was similarly part of a limited-edition poster he printed for Channel Orange’s anniversary. One fan suggested Smiles, saying it might be related to the famous happy smile drug symbol (a riff on the hallucinogens discussion on Blonded). Another said it could be Starstruck.

All of these are reaches, though. In reality, we have no idea.

What was Frank Ocean’s Coachella 2023 show like?

He might have arrived an hour later than scheduled, but Frank turned out a set that seemed elusive, strange and memorable. Opening the show with “Novacane”, he apparently spent much of the show with his back turned to the audience. He was concealed mostly behind a large screen which projected shots of him performing — most fans barely saw him in the flesh.

The show was split into three acts. The first section was a traditional gig set-up, with Frank giving live debuts to newer tracks like “Come On World, You Can’t Go!” and new versions of “White Ferrari”. He gave us a little album teaser too — or rather, he nodded to its existence: “I want to talk about why I’m here because it’s not because of a new album,” he said. “Not that there’s not a new album.”

Is it true A24 are producing a visual album for Frank Ocean?

Of course, this is all speculative, but we’ve been revisiting rumours that were swirling during Frank’s Coachella set, in which fans in attendance thought the show was being live-produced by A24. Either that might mean that A24 were recording the show professionally (which might make sense, considering the show itself wasn’t live streamed) with the intention of releasing it Beychella style; or that it would be a part of his forthcoming A24 feature. Or, as some have suggested, the footage could play a part in a visual album.

Someone posted an unsubstantiated rumour that screenwriter Eric Roth — who most recently wrote the script for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon — spoke to a group of students at a Los Angeles film school and, perhaps accidentally, revealed that he was contacted by Frank who “told me he has a visual album that he wants to do”, and if Eric could help with the treatment. That was posted on Reddit at the tail-end of 2022.

What is Frank Ocean’s new album release date?

Coachella has been and gone with no new music released. It’s safe to say that a release date is something we definitely do not have. Yet.

Has Frank released anything else to tide us over?

While new music has not yet manifested, Frank sure has been busy making other things in the meantime. Released in February 2023, the Blonded site has been selling a range of pullover hoodies, tees, sweatpants and a mouse pad, each decorated with either the classic or an “iceman” iteration of the BlondedRadio logo, or with the words LSD and a cryptic fuzzy symbol on a luminescent green background. Could this be a reference to the visuals and themes of an upcoming record?

The cryptic text from a promotional poster in a recent merch package describes a “fictitious Recording Artist” who attempted to tell the story of his experiences in the industry through a 2019 photo series.

The images (shot by Michael Marcelle) see Jeremy Strong play a record label’s Chairman, arguing in an unproductive meeting with the Recording Artist about “the singles distribution model”. The missive concludes with a note that the Recording Artist “is again interested in more durational bodies of work”. Translation: the album is coming.

This article has been updated with new information and republished a number of times.