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.