Music

Frank Ocean is one of those artists who immediately captured the world’s attention. As soon as Channel Orange was released, it catapulted Frank, born Christopher Breaux, into superstardom. Yes, his previous mixtape Nostalgia Ultra was a fan-favorite as well, but the co-sign of Def Jam and Channel Orange‘s high-profile guests like Earl Sweatshirt, Andre 3000, and John Mayer, made it clear that this was an artist’s artist. A few years later, his cleverness in pulling the wool over his label’s eyes with Endless, and immediately following it up with Blonde helped establish Ocean as a legacy artist following in the footsteps of fellow rebels like Prince. Now that it’s been almost six years, though, fans are hopeful that some of things Ocean has been teasing over the last few years will finally see the light of day. Here’s what we know so far about what might be next.

Everything We Know About Frank Ocean’s Next Album
One thing we do know is that Frank has been reportedly shopping a new record around to labels. It seemed like he was gearing up to head into album mode back in 2019 when he shared both “DHL” and “In My Room,” but it’s likely the pandemic got in the way of any planned releases in early 2020. Though, he did put out another pair of singles in March of 2020, releasing “Dear April” and “Cayendo.” During a recent Christmas episode of his Apple Music radio show, Blonded, he also shared another new nine-minute track. Still, the best timeline we have for his new album is pegged to his rumored headlining slot at Coachella 2023. So it makes the most sense that even if we get a few new singles this year and in early 2023, that the project would drop close to his appearance at the biggest festival in the world.

The eternal question for music fans always looms large when artists take a few years off: When will they return? And since the back-to-back — or bait-and-switch — release of Endless and Blonde in 2016, Frank Ocean has been mostly off the grid. He did resurface to pay homage to his great friend Virgil Abloh after the fashion legend’s passing, but staying out of the spotlight is basically a full-time job for this R&B star. Still, it’s been close to six years since we got a full-length from Ocean and inquiring minds want to know, will we ever get another? And if so, when?

When Is Frank Ocean Releasing A New Album?
Unfortunately, if you came here looking for a definitive answer, that isn’t really in the cards at this time. Ocean has been slowly but steadily releasing songs here and there on his Apple Music radio show Blonded, including a pair of singles, “Dear April” and “Cayendo” back in 2020, but has spent the bulk of the pandemic canceling releases or working on secret side projects.

Due to delays and cancellations related to the pandemic, Frank won’t be headlining Coachella this year — though he was slated to in 2020 — but the festival’s co-founder claims he will in 2023. So maybe we’ll finally get an album before that massive appearance? Which means there’s a potential singles could start rolling out in late 2022… so that’s what we’ll go with for now. Give it six months and check back in. Rumors that he’s been shopping an album around to labels are persistent, so it could be a matter of timeline, and Coachella makes the most sense so far.