Frank Ocean caught a lot of heat — heat that Justin Bieber did not feel was justified — for his abbreviated headlining set at Coachella in April due to “a serious ankle injury after being involved in a bike accident,” which caused Ocean to pull out of the second weekend and reportedly cost Coachella millions of dollars. But there was a silver lining: Ocean casually threw out that he might release a new album soon-ish. (Ocean’s last album was 2016’s Blonde.) On Wednesday night, November 9, he added fuel to that fire on his Instagram Story.
In true Frank Ocean fashion, the Instagram Story is vague. It shows a super close-up screenshot that is not distinguishable, but make sure the volume is up because it would appear Ocean just teased unreleased music for the first time since December 2021 (as chronicled by Pitchfork), when he played a nine-minute untitled track on his Apple Music Blonded Radio channel, which returned again in July 2022.
The new clip on Ocean’s Instagram Story falls squarely within his signature sonic palette that might best be described as “lazy river vibes” and anecdotal lyricism. He sings about “assumptions” and “educated guesses,” boundaries as obstacles, and wanting to “see all your sides / And your heart’s been tangled in barbed wires / You can hand that to me / I can handle it.”
Frank, please take your own advice. You can hand new music to us. We can handle it.