The rumour mill has been churning over time as of late, with its newest submission that Frank Ocean is releasing new music under the alias "blondead," a verified Spotify artist. But are said rumours grounded in fact? I personally hope so. Ocean has influenced a generation of artists with his production style and errant lyricism and there are a plethora of Ocean impersonators, so what makes people think that "blondead" is the one? We'll lay out the facts and let you decide.
The re-release thing
Currently, Ocean's official Spotify page only has a selection of his discography including his major studio releases like Blonde and channel ORANGE but older releases like The Lonny Breaux Collection and nostalgia, ULTRA are not officially available to stream. So far, "blondead" has released three singles that are actually old songs from The Lonny Breaux Collection, an old Frank Ocean 70-track compilation from 2010. The songs released are miss you so, sucka for you and bedtime story. The singles use old images of the artist.
The double-sided poster
In a recent merch drop, Ocean hinted at the release of a new album in a coded message on a double-sided poster containing a transcript. The script reads as the following: “In the summer of 2019, Blonded produced a photo series shot on Thursday, August 8 2019. The photo series follows the story of a fictitious Recording Artist as he navigates his radio system.” Are we seeing where the fans are coming from? You can listen to the three singles here and see what you think.
The message continued, “The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work.”
Ocean preferred “the singles distribution model as opposed to the long-form album model,” adding that the album is “outdated” and that releasing singles is “more suited to modern consumption habits”.
The end passage shows a change of direction, insinuating Ocean will go back to the album model, “The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work.” This does fit snugly with "blondead" being Ocean.
Frank Ocean will be headlining at Coachella 2023 in April. Read up on the rest of the artists heading to the desert in our lineup reveal.
