Blonde

Frank Ocean Releases Blonde, His First Full-Length Album Since 2012

The singer dropped his new album Saturday evening.
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Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images.

The wait for new Frank Ocean music is finally over, even if it’s a few weeks late. But we can’t even be mad, because the Grammy-nominated singer has given us not one, but two full length albums: the first was his short film Endless, which he released Friday morning, and the second is Blonde, which came out on Apple Music late Saturday night. He also released a music video Saturday morning for his song “Nikes,” which appears as the first track on Blonde.

The album features a rogues’ gallery of the best of the best in pop music, with the likes of Beyoncé, Kanye West, André 3000, and Tyler, the Creator collaborating with Ocean on Blonde.

But that’s not all. Ocean also gave away copies of his new zine, called “Boys Don’t Cry” (which was the original title of Blonde) at four surprise pop-up shops he set up around the country. The zine contains a CD version of Blonde with a different track order than what appears on Apple Music.

The just-over-an-hour-long album offers a glimpse into Ocean’s stream of consciousness, where he sings about youth, corruption, spirituality, and sensuality, with layered electronic beats and modified instrumentals giving it Ocean’s singular “poetic and contemplative tone.” Amid all the craziness of the past few days, the singer took some time for a moment of levity, acknowledging the sky-high expectations of his fans: “I had the time of my life making all of this,” he wrote on his Tumblr. “Thank you all. Especially those of you who never let me forget I had to finish. Which is basically every one of y’all. Haha. Love you.”