A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away lived a musician named Frank Ocean. Renowned for his lushly orchestrated and highly-idiosyncratic brand of R&B, Frank released one album, 2012’s critically acclaimed Channel Orange, before vanishing off the face of the planet, a solitary Tumblr page left to beam messages sporadically into the ether. In his absence, other falsetto-heavy balladeers, have risen from the ashes — The Weeknd and Zayn Malik to name but two — yet the whereabouts of this most prized guardian of peace, justice has remained a mystery. Until…
Early on Saturday, a year after Channel Orange follow-up Boys Don’t Cry was first promised, Frank’s website was updated. An image of a library card return slip, stamped with dates — two new markings singling out July and November of this year. Could the long-awaited album and zine be upon us, asked Twitter collectively? We wouldn’t like to say. But to paraphrase Sinéad O’Connor: it’s been 34,920 hours and 1,455 days, Frank. Think of the overdue fine.
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Text Matthew Whitehouse