Ocean quit Twitter shortly after the release of his last LP, and unusually for a major star, does not have an official Facebook page, so the rumour mill has been in overdrive. Up to 10 possible tracks likely to feature on Swish have already surfaced online in some form, leaving even the most dedicated Ye fan jaded and past caring. However, Ocean claims to have finished the record over a year ago, so whether any of these will actually feature on the final tracklisting, or if the musician has started from scratch, is anybody’s guess.Ĭompare this to the current status of Kanye West’s upcoming album. There have been snippets of new material over the last three years – the demo of a song titled Memrise the soppy acoustic number Eyes Like Sky live previews of tracks reportedly called Summer Remains, It’s All Good, Brave and Feel California. Ocean’s mother, meanwhile, has been reassuring impatient fans like a parent pestered on a long drive to Disneyland.ĭespite all the speculation, fans have little idea what to actually expect from the release. His brother, Ryan Breaux, recently claimed the album had surfaced, but it was just a rickroll.
Haha.”įrank’s not the only one getting in on the fun, either, with Ocean’s family offering up some free PR.
Ocean also publishes a magazine of the same title.Īmid all the furore, Ocean has been toying with fans: inserting clips of Dutch cartoons into the source code of his website to goad amateur hackers, uploading empty audio sets to Soundcloud like some sort of a virtual treasure hunt and posting riddles on Tumblr: “Ok, if one person managed to stop themselves from spinning this morning … While the earth and everything keeps going … Would that person then get smashed into by the objects around her and cause massive destruction upon impact? Or is that poor physics?” he wrote, then added: “I know, I know … Quit asking dumb ass questions to the internet and drop your album. It is rumoured to be titled Boys Don’t Cry (possibly a homage to the Cure, or perhaps named after the cult trans biopic of the same name). Rather than issuing any apologies, excuses or blaming the record label, the relative silence surrounding the delay has only added to the excitement and intrigue. With that vague deadline passing with no follow-up album, the reaction has spanned the five stages of Twitter-vented grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance and solace through the sharing of memes. It’s an album so adored that a simple blogpost with the date “july 2015” caused mania among his fans back in April. On his last album, Channel Orange (the Guardian’s pick of 2012), the R&B artist depicted suburban privilege, explored the inequalities facing black Americans and boldly delved into his own inner workings. Certain sections of the web are growing impatient with Frank Ocean.