Frank Ocean

The Most Anticipated R&B Albums Of 2023

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The Most Anticipated R&B Albums Of 2023
Getty Image/Ralph Ordaz

R&B fans received plenty of gifts from their favorite artists long before the Christmas season in 2022. Ari Lennox returned with her first album in three years with Age/Sex/Location while SZA made her way back into our hearts with SOS, her first body of work since 2017. Newcomers like Amber Mark, Lokre, Giveon, and more made their mark in the game with their debut albums while seasoned vets like PJ Morton, Robert Glasper, Kehlani, and Alex Isley continued to do what they do best.

Despite all we got in 2022, there was also a lot that we didn’t get over the course of the year. Some artists were hard at work crafting their next musical presentations to the world, others pushed their initial 2022 releases back a year, and as for the rest, well, we’re just hoping they release something soon.

So aside from writing resolutions for 2023, let’s also take a moment to share our anticipations for the new year – that is the most anticipated R&B albums of 2023. Here are 16 artists we hope to receive albums from next year with 14 coming from the R&B world and the remaining two living in afrobeats.

Kelela — Raven

February 10

Of all the albums on this list, Kelela’s Raven is the only one that we actually have a set release date for. The D.C. singer will share her long-awaited sophomore album on February 10 which comes five and a half years after the release of her celebrated Take Me Apart debut. Kelela has described Raven as a “15 track deep-dive into facets of dance music that have always excited me” and her “first breath taken in the dark, an affirmation of black femme perspective in the midst of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power.”

Baby Rose

Baby Rose’s last project arrived in 2021 with To: You (A Holiday Joint), but the D.C. soul singer hopefully has something in store for us next year. Her captivating voice was most recently used in October for her double-sided single “Go B/W Fight Club” which arrived two years after her stellar debut album To Myself. There’s no telling what kind of music will get on Baby Rose’s sophomore album, but at the very least, we hope it arrives sometime in 2023.

Bryson Tiller

It’s been two years since Bryson Tiller made his grand return to the music world following a three-year absence that featured little to no music. That return was Anniversary, and with that project’s release, came the announcement that a previously-mentioned effort, Serenity, would see the light of day soon. At the top of 2021, Tiller said that Serenity would be a triple disc release with a pop, rap, and R&B side. Tiller certainly has the versatility to pull this off, as his recent releases “Outside” and “Gotta Move On” suggest. It’s just a matter of time until we as listeners can be the judge of that.

Chlöe – Chlöe

Chlöe has been hard at work on her debut solo album Chlöe ever since Chloe x Halle impressed the world with their sophomore effort, Ungodly Hour. Chlöe’s own body of work will be a bit different from what we heard on Ungodly Hour as her “Have Mercy,” “Treat Me,” “Surprise,” and “For The Night” singles depict both contextually and sonically. While it still remains to be seen who will guest beside Chlöe on her album, we do have an idea of what Chlöe will sound like. “In the beginning, you can tell that [the person] who is singing is like a bird with broken wings,” she said in an interview with Allure. “As time went on, you can hear me finding my strength and confidence.”

Davido

In 2022, afrobeats had one of the strongest years in its modern era. Artists like Wizkid, Rema, Burna Boy, and Asake contributed to the genre’s greatness over the course of the year. A notable name that was missing from the mix was Davido who will soon enter his third year without a new album following 2020’s A Better Time. With ear-pleasing tunes like “Champion Sound” and “Stand Strong” out as possible previews of what’s the come, there’s no doubt that Davido will take the helm to show off afrobeats’ continued and undeniable growth. Plus, with a promise to return in March, we may not have to wait too long to see it all unfold.

FLO

Boy bands and girl groups are more or less a thing of the past nowadays, but the British singing trio FLO is using the open space to stand out. The female group comprised of singers Stella, Jorja, and Renée released their debut EP The Lead in 2022, and now have plans to share their debut album in the near future. Speaking of that future, it seems to be very bright for FLO as they’ve already made their television debuts in both the US and UK in addition to being the first British group to win the Brit Award for Rising Star, an honor previously received by Adele, Sam Smith, Jorja Smith, Florence and the Machine, and Ellie Goulding. The sky is the limit for FLO.

Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean
Getty Image/Ralph Ordaz

In all honesty, there hasn’t been a true sign that Frank Ocean will drop music in 2023. However, there are enough clues for us fans who’ve been waiting since 2016 to have just enough hope that he will. Frank is set to headline Coachella in 2023. He shared a nine-minute track on Christmas Day in 2021, effectively proving that he’s indeed in the studio — even if it’s sporadically. He even cleared out his Instagram posts which artists have often used as a rollout before the rollout in a sense. Nonetheless, these examples mean nothing just as much as they could mean something. So with that, we’ll just have hope that Frank returns with a body of work that is as artistically captivating as Channel Orange and Blonde, so much so that it joins the debate of which out the three is truly his best output.

Janelle Monáe

We most recently saw Janelle Monáe on the big screen through her role as Andi in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. However, it’s been a while since we received music from her. Monáe’s last album, Dirty Computer, dropped in 2018, and since then, she’s only dropped singles for inclusions in various movies. That changed with a preview of a new song to celebrate her 37th birthday to start December. Furthermore, Atlantic Records’ CEO Craig Kallman confirmed in an interview with Variety that Monáe has new music set to come out in 2023. Turns out, Glass Onion is just the start of what could be an impressive run for Monáe.

Jhené Aiko

Jhene Aiko sol blume
Dante Nicholas

Jhené Aiko’s last album Chilombo was her most celebrated and critically acclaimed album. It gave her three Grammy nominations, topped R&B album charts, and landed on multiple year-end lists. A lot has happened to Jhené since then. She gave birth to her second child and first with Big Sean. She launched her own record label Allel Sound through Def Jam. Nonetheless, there’s a decent chance that Jhené gives fans some music in 2023. It could be her fourth album or her long-awaited second album as one-half of Twenty88 with Big Sean. We’ll just have to see which one, if either, gets released next year.

Kiana Lede

Kiana Lede has one of the best voices in R&B today, it’s just unfortunate that we haven’t heard from her in some time. Don’t fret though, that reminder will surely be delivered in 2023 when she arrives with her second album and follow-up to 2020’s KIKI. Her eagerness to release this project has been made clear on social media multiple times over the past few months. She even dropped an EP, Unfinished Business, on SoundCloud to hold fans over and give them a taste of what’s to come next year – and based on that EP, what’s next is definitely worth the wait.

Masego

There’s no telling what Masego has in store next for his fans. It could be a traditional R&B and jazz release like his 2018 debut Lady Lady and it could be more flavorful like his 2020 Studying Abroad EP. Regardless, there’s no doubt that the multi-talented artist will deliver an equally impressive and intricate body of work for his second album. There’s already a collection of performances in place thanks to his You Never Visit Me Tour set to kick off in March, which is a pretty good sign that his new album could arrive bring the official start of spring.

Mariah The Scientist

Mariah The Scientist’s sharp pen is about this put on full display when she releases her third album at some point in 2023. Recent examples of her songwriting were noticeable through the viral “Spread Thin” which was housed on Buckles Laboratories Presents: The Intermission and “Aura” from Ry Ry World. It’s these tender lovelorn songs that have made Mariah The Scientist so enjoyable, and together with fun records like “Stone Cold” and slightly darker submissions like “Bout Mine,” there’s enough to look forward to for album No. 3.

PARTYNEXTDOOR

Just like he did after 2017’s Seven Days, PARTYNEXTDOOR’s activity in the music world after his fourth album PARTYMOBILE has been sparse. A single here, a feature there, SoundCloud songs put on streaming services here, and a post giving fans some hope of something new on the way there. Time says that PARTYNEXTDOOR’s next album is likely to arrive in 2023, more so than it was in 2022. However, with just two projects to his name in the last five years, it’s clear that PARTYNEXTDOOR moves on his own time and when he’s ready, he’ll pop back up with something. Let’s just hope it’s in 2023.

Tems

For someone who didn’t release a project this year, Tems had a big year in 2022. It came in large part through profiles that gave us a closer look into her life, moments with huge stars like Rihanna and Beyonce, and contributions to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever film. On this music side of things, it hasn’t been long since Tems dropped a project with her most recent being 2021’s If Orange Was A Place which followed her 2020 breakout For Broken Ears. The year “off” for Tems was well-deserved, but it comes with a promise for more and lots of exciting things in 2023.

Victoria Monet – Jaguar II

I won’t know what to do myself if I have to endure another year without a Victoria Monet project. Her excellent Jaguar EP probably shudders when I storm to it for the umpteenth relisten. Realistically though, Monet hasn’t completely disappeared from the music world and her songwriting contributions to Ariana Grande’s Positions, for example, are an example of that. Nonetheless, we hope that Monet sees that it’s time that she returns with her previously announced Jaguar II EP. Until then, it’s back to Jaguar with occasional stops at “Coastin’” and “F.*.C.K.”

6lack

My thought throughout the year was that 6lack would deliver his third album at some point during 2022. However, with just days until the year comes to an end, it’s clear that it’ll arrive in 2023. It’s only been two years since 6lack’s last project 6pc Hot was released, and ever since then, the Atlanta native has made sure not to go too long without treating supporters. 6lack stepped into the world of others through songs with Lil Durk, Lil Tjay, Eli Derby, Jacquees, Jessie Reyez, and others that made their way into our ears over the past couple of years. In 2023, we look forward to seeing 6lack create a world for himself and invite others into it for his third album.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

SZA’s ‘SOS’ Behind-The-Scenes Video Reveals It Almost Featured Frank Ocean, Billie Eilish, And Many More

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While SZA’s new sophomore album, SOS, features collabs from Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, she recently revealed that she had way more in mind.

“Sometimes people turn in their verses and sometimes they don’t,” she said during an interview on Hot 97 via NME. “And a lot of people just like did not turn in their verses, but I’m grateful for who did.”

In a new youTube video titled “SOS Where The Hell Have You Been ?”, fans spotted a whiteboard in the behind-the-scenes footage of the album’s creation. And on it are the names of some major artists that could have been on the album.

Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Drake, Finneas, Frank Ocean, Halsey, Harry Styles, Kacey Musgraves, Kendrick Lamar, Olivia Rodrigo, Rosalía, Tyler, The Creator, and more are the big musicians that have been made out so far. And what a wild album that would’ve been… Or could be, in the future.

The whiteboard also has a section labeled Benchmarks where it lists RNB and Grunge (specifically, The Cardigans). You can also make out the words “murder them” which might be a reference to songs like “Kill Bill.” It also has the phrase “guard down.”

Watch SZA’s behind-the-scenes of SOS video above.

Frank Ocean Wipes IG Page Sparking Speculation About New Music

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Frank Ocean deleted the entirety of his Instagram feed on Monday, sparking speculation that he may be gearing up to release new music soon. A new album from Ocean would be his first full-length project since 2016’s Blonde.

It’s also distinctly possible that he could be ready to introduce fans to a new project for his fashion and jewelry design brand Homer, or that he has nothing in the plans and wanted to give his Instagram page a makeover.

(Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Ocean has also been involved in talks with A24 to write and direct his debut feature film.

There is some credence to the theory that new music from Ocean isn’t far off, considering that he recently confirmed he spent the summer working in a studio in Malibu while speaking with Dr. James Fadiman on Blonded Radio for Apple Music.

“Forgive how, like, free associative this might feel,” he said at the time. “… I was working in Malibu this summer and I would go out, like, pretty late from the studio and there’s, like, a big population of coyotes in Malibu. And then when I would go outside I would see, like, all these bunnies running around and it reminded me of video games where you’re, like, a wizard or something. And you’re playing this role in this game and you’re running around and you have these little things to pick up and put in the pouch.”

Check out Ocean’s scrubbed Instagram page below, as caught by Complex.

[Via]

Is Frank Ocean’s New Album Coming Soon?

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Frank Ocean
Getty Image

Now that Kendrick Lamar finally released his long-awaited new album in Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, the internet hive mind can turn its full attention to whenever Frank Ocean finally decides to put out the follow-up to Blonde. It’s been six years since Ocean released an album and something happened today that indicated that we might finally be headed towards the promised land.

As of today, September 26th, Frank Ocean took the liberty of clearing all of the posts from his Instagram page (@blonded). Take that with a grain of salt, but if there was ever a sign that a Frank Ocean album is coming soon, this is it. But there have been some other indicators as of late that Frank Ocean SZN is approaching.

Frank Ocean IG
Instagram

Back in July, Ocean released two new episodes of his Blonded Radio show on Apple Music out of the blue. The episodes were unconventional, to say the least, including a 35-minute original score that Ocean wrote atop a conversation about psychedelics and micro-dosing and another score set to a talk on Qi Gong. A year ago, a rumor was floating around that Ocean was taking meetings with label execs as he shopped around a completed new album. But that could very well be rendered baseless, because what the heck does Frank Ocean need to “shop a record” for? In the meantime, Ocean released a luxury sex toy last month.

Frank Ocean Launches A Luxury C*ck Ring For Nearly $26,000

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frank ocean 2019 met gala
Getty Image / Theo Wargo

While it may be a while until we get new music from Frank Ocean, the Blonde singer is tiding us over with some interesting new merch. Through his luxury brand, Homer, which he launched last year, Ocean is selling a c*ck ring.

The XXXL H-Bone Ring is comprised of 60 “lab-grown” princess cut diamonds, according to the Homer website, and rings in at $25,570.

In addition to the c*ck ring, Ocean is selling other luxury items, including a $3,100 A-OK Keychain and a $9,825 Dolly Llama keychain.

In an Instagram post announcing the collection, Ocean revealed he had plans to go on tour in 2020, however, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic quickly put a damper on those plans. “Wigging w/ multiple fans blowing thru my hair + hoodie from tour that Covid cancelled back in 2020..plus some sketches from my desk a couple months ago and a buss down Homer bday cake. Love u see u.”

At the time of writing, Ocean has yet to announce a new project, however, we’re certain new music is imminent. In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Coachella festival co-founder Paul Tollett revealed Ocean will headline Coachella next year.

“Right now, it’s the Wild West. I’m just trying to be as fair as I can to artists and to the fans to make sure that eventually, they get to see everyone that we talked about.”

Which Frank Ocean Album Is Better: ‘Channel Orange’ vs. ‘Blonde’

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Frank Ocean
Getty Image/Ralph Ordaz

Earlier this month, Frank Ocean‘s first proper album Channel Orange turned 10, which naturally prompted writers to sing the praises of the highly acclaimed 2010s landmark. Except the critical love was curiously qualified in the same, specific way. For instance, Rolling Stone noted that Ocean’s second LP, 2016’s Blonde, has “arguably outshined Channel Orange in scope and impact.” Similarly, Stereogum also suggested that Blonde has “arguably eclipsed [Channel Orange] in terms of influence and prestige.”

For those keeping score, Channel Orange “arguably” is now down to Blonde in scope, impact, influence, and prestige. That’s four — count ’em four! — indicators of “greatness,” all leaning in the opposite direction away from Channel Orange. Actually, as far as critical consensus goes, “arguably” almost seems unnecessary at this point. Initially released to enthusiastic but somewhat reticent reviews — many critics, including yours truly, found it to be somewhere between a masterpiece and an incomplete mess — Blonde has indeed over time overshadowed (or “outshined” or “eclipsed”) its predecessor.

Consider that Pitchfork rated Blonde a 9.0 upon release – a stellar but slightly worse score than Channel Orange‘s 9.5 — only to rank it as the best album of the 2010s three years later. (Channel Orange came in at No. 10, a stellar but of course slightly worse placement.) Over at Rolling Stone, Blonde came out over Channel Orange on its Best Albums Of The Decade list, popping up at No. 12 vs. Channel Orange‘s (far too low) No. 37 ranking. But on the magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list, compiled just one year later, Blonde rose all the way to No. 79 — only three albums from the 2010s (Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade) did better, so perhaps Blonde is now considered that decade’s fourth best record. (Channel Orange meanwhile lagged behind at No. 148, ahead of John Prine’s self-titled debut and just below Jeff Buckley’s Grace.)

Two things appear to be true in terms of how Channel Orange is now perceived — first, it’s indisputably a classic album of its era and, second, it seems to be regarded as a bit worse than Blonde. But is this really about these Frank Ocean albums, or does it actually say more about the people who write about music for a living? I have a theory that there are actually two 2010s — early 2010s and late 2010s — and these adjacent micro-generations are defined musically in part by Channel Orange and Blonde.

I have a clear memory of when Channel Orange was released in the summer of 2012. Like almost anyone who cared about popular music at the time, I was primed for this record. I had enjoyed and reviewed 2011’s Nostalgia, Ultra, a mixtape (not technically an album) that showed Ocean to be a singer-songwriter with tremendous potential he was just coming to realize. Now all signs were pointing toward a major breakthrough.

Ocean appeared the night before the release on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and performed a startling rendition of one of the album’s most emotional tracks, “Bad Religion.” The song touched on the themes of unrequited love and personal identity that Ocean discussed in a widely read Tumblr post from one week prior, in which he revealed in heartfelt and poetic language that he had fallen in love with a man in 2009. This letter would inform how Channel Orange was subsequently heard and written about. First and foremost, it made Frank Ocean an artist that people wanted to see succeed.

Also on Fallon, it was announced that Channel Orange was actually out right now, a week earlier than expected. As this was the early 2010s, during the lull before streaming took hold, the rush release was intended to briefly circumvent piracy. And it worked: Many of us really did purchase the album download immediately after Fallon. We wanted to hear Orange as soon as possible, and it instantly became one of the first “event” albums of the social media era. In 2012, it was still novel for “everyone” to experience an album for the first time simultaneously online, and the impromptu late-night listening party undoubtedly added to Channel Orange‘s sense of importance.

Looked at more broadly, Channel Orange came out in the waning days of Barack Obama’s first term, and it pointed toward a future in which America’s first Black commander-in-chief became the first Democrat to win two presidential elections with a majority of the vote since FDR. In Ocean, many people saw a different kind of transformational figure, a forward-thinking paradigm-shifter whose sudden rise seemed to indicate real social progress for queer Americans. (Even Obama, who entered the White House officially opposed to gay marriage, had only changed his public position two months before Channel Orange was released.) This made Channel Orange in its time more than just an excellent album; it was also a feel-good story, an optimistic bellwether portending positive change on the horizon, a quintessential Obama-era cultural signifier.

Is it possible that these short-term attributes have somehow dated Channel Orange in retrospect? There are aspects of Channel Orange that feel much older than just a decade, especially when you compare it to Blonde. The circumstances of each album’s release have a striking yin-yang quality — while Channel Orange came out at a time when it appeared as though recent progressive gains would be impossible to reverse, Blonde arrived (along with the even more radical Endless) at the end of the Obama era, as the dread-inducing murk of Trump’s America loomed. This has shaped how both albums sound in 2022.

When Pitchfork placed Blonde at the top of its best of the 2010s list, the music site effectively retconned it as a record that expressed how it felt to be alive in the cursed late 2010s better than any other work of art. “The year 2016 crystallized the political disaster right under the surface.” writer Doreen St. Felix noted. “People theorized that we needed anthems to get us through the dark night. Big choruses, hooks as wide as highway signs, regular percussion that could gird us from chaos. But our mood was languorous; jingoism was the problem in the first place. We wanted the blurred, the softened, the existential.”

Channel Orange had once also seemed “blurred,” “softened” and “existential.” Upon its release, the album felt insular, strange, and willfully anti-commercial. That was part of Orange‘s progressive appeal. But in the wake of Blonde‘s much more extreme fragmentation — in which drums and most other instrumentation were eschewed to intensify the spotlight on Ocean’s pained, introspective isolation — Orange suddenly seemed relatively buoyant and accessible, if also (perhaps) less “real.” Whereas the relatively hopeful period that Channel Orange evokes seems further away each day, the alienated interior soundscapes of Blonde feel as new as the morning sunrise, not just in terms of influence — which has been immense on pop music, which is more vibey than ever — but emotional relevance. If Channel Orange hits like a happy but distant memory, Blonde feels as present as your latest breath.

I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Channel Orange and Blonde lately, and it should be noted, before anything else, that pitting them against each other is foolish. They are, again, highly complementary albums that offer distinctly different (but equally masterful) experiences. While my feelings about Blonde were initially mixed, I now hear it as an album that feels wholly unique to Ocean’s sensibility. With Channel Orange, critics were quick to put Ocean in a continuum of icons that included shapeshifters like Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, and Prince, all of whom managed to make wildly successful pop on their own intensely eccentric terms. But with Blonde, Ocean made the case for starting his own continuum, in which future musicians would follow a path charted by him and him alone in the 2010s and beyond.

This is why Blonde, I’m sure, now gets the edge over Channel Orange in the minds of music writers. It feels more important. But while I acknowledge the musical ingenuity and power of that record, my recent spins tell me my heart still resides with Channel Orange. I just think the songs are better, while also registering more fully as songs as opposed to vibe-y setpieces. (You can’t convince me Frank has yet topped “Pyramids,” unless you want to make a case for “Thinkin’ Bout You” or “Forrest Gump.”) As an album, it is more dynamic and well rounded — it has the stripped-down gut-punches (“Bad Religion,” “Pink Matter”) that point toward Blonde, but it also has the catchy bangers (“Super Rich Kids,” “Lost”) that Frank mostly left behind on his second album.

Above all, Blonde would not exist without Channel Orange. First, Frank Ocean assembled his original masterpiece. Then he disassembled it in order to create a pared-down second masterpiece. Together, they represent a singular journey through an uncertain and tumultuous era.