A September tease from Frank Ocean led to a December merch drop headlined by a new vinyl pressing of his acclaimed album Blonde, and some posters that were also up for grabs appear to hint at the artist's renewed interest in releasing albums as opposed to singles.
To refresh your memory: following the release of Endless and Blonde in 2016, Ocean would spend the next four years treating listeners to a string of one-off, non-album singles — some of which were premiered via his Blonded Radio show on Apple Music.
Led by the platinum-certified "Chanel," this period also saw the release of "Biking" (both with and without guest spots from JAY-Z and Tyler, the Creator) "Lens" (with and without Travis Scott), "Provider," a cover of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's "Moon River," "DHL," "In My Room," "Dear April" and "Cayendo."
Now, it appears Ocean is having second thoughts about sticking strictly to singles. As fan community blonded.blog shows, double-sided posters sold by Ocean in December tell a tale of a "fictitious Recording Artist" — Ocean himself, perhaps — taking part in an unreleased 2019 photoshoot helmed by Michael Marcelle, involving the artist and Succession actor Jeremy Strong who plays "a Chairman of a major record label."
Per the poster, archived below by blonded.blog, "The Recording Artist attempts to explain to the major music label the singles distribution model as opposed to the long-form album model. The Recording Artist believes the latter to be outdated, and that releasing singles is more suited to modern consumption habits where people curate their own playlists which are then shared within private circles. The meeting does not appear to be productive."
The posters also explain how this unpublished photo series coincided with "the planning of three Blonded live radio events that year," organized with the intent "to grow from small club events to larger raves across the world." However, the tale ultimately concludes as follows: "The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work."
Perhaps Ocean's second thoughts were also hastened by the choice to scrap a planned vinyl release of "In My Room" and a new, unreleased song on 7-inch records as the pandemic further plunged the vinyl record manufacturing industry into chaos.
In any case, Ocean is due to headline Coachella 2023 this summer — and maybe he'll have new material to perform come that time.
You can find the complete message from Ocean's poster below. Before it was re-pressed in December 2022, physical editions of Blonde were sold in limited quantities with alternate, black and white artwork as part of a merch drop on Black Friday 2016. Due to its relative rarity, unofficial editions in a variety of formats have been spotted for sale in record stores.
Endless — initially released ahead of Blonde in 2016 as an exclusive streaming-only "visual album" to effectively complete Ocean's recording contract with Def Jam — was later remastered and given a limited physical release by the artist in 2018.
To refresh your memory: following the release of Endless and Blonde in 2016, Ocean would spend the next four years treating listeners to a string of one-off, non-album singles — some of which were premiered via his Blonded Radio show on Apple Music.
Led by the platinum-certified "Chanel," this period also saw the release of "Biking" (both with and without guest spots from JAY-Z and Tyler, the Creator) "Lens" (with and without Travis Scott), "Provider," a cover of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's "Moon River," "DHL," "In My Room," "Dear April" and "Cayendo."
Now, it appears Ocean is having second thoughts about sticking strictly to singles. As fan community blonded.blog shows, double-sided posters sold by Ocean in December tell a tale of a "fictitious Recording Artist" — Ocean himself, perhaps — taking part in an unreleased 2019 photoshoot helmed by Michael Marcelle, involving the artist and Succession actor Jeremy Strong who plays "a Chairman of a major record label."
Per the poster, archived below by blonded.blog, "The Recording Artist attempts to explain to the major music label the singles distribution model as opposed to the long-form album model. The Recording Artist believes the latter to be outdated, and that releasing singles is more suited to modern consumption habits where people curate their own playlists which are then shared within private circles. The meeting does not appear to be productive."
The posters also explain how this unpublished photo series coincided with "the planning of three Blonded live radio events that year," organized with the intent "to grow from small club events to larger raves across the world." However, the tale ultimately concludes as follows: "The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work."
Perhaps Ocean's second thoughts were also hastened by the choice to scrap a planned vinyl release of "In My Room" and a new, unreleased song on 7-inch records as the pandemic further plunged the vinyl record manufacturing industry into chaos.
In any case, Ocean is due to headline Coachella 2023 this summer — and maybe he'll have new material to perform come that time.
You can find the complete message from Ocean's poster below. Before it was re-pressed in December 2022, physical editions of Blonde were sold in limited quantities with alternate, black and white artwork as part of a merch drop on Black Friday 2016. Due to its relative rarity, unofficial editions in a variety of formats have been spotted for sale in record stores.
Endless — initially released ahead of Blonde in 2016 as an exclusive streaming-only "visual album" to effectively complete Ocean's recording contract with Def Jam — was later remastered and given a limited physical release by the artist in 2018.
In the summer of 2019, Blonded produced a photo series shot on Thursday, August 8, 2019, by photographer Michael Marcelle. The photo series follows the story of a fictitious Recording Artist as he navigates the radio system.
In one scene the actor Jeremy Strong plays a Chairman of a major record label. On the walls: a clock, two framed records. The Chairman is flanked by another figure. Both are dressed in suits, wearing ties, and are positioned behind a long boardroom table. They are opposite a shadowed figure in the foreground — the Recording Artist — whose subjectivity the viewer is to inhabit.
The Recording Artist attempts to explain to the major music label the singles distribution model as opposed to the long-form album model. The Recording Artist believes the latter to be outdated, and that releasing singles is more suited to modern consumption habits where people curate their own playlists which are then shared within private circles. The meeting does not appear to be productive.
The photo series coincided with the planning of three Blonded live radio events that year. They were held on three Thursday nights towards the end of 2019, in the basement of the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York. On October 19th, 24th, and the 31st, 2019, doors opened at 10PM. A custom nightclub with vintage lighting fixtures was installed for the duration of each party.
On the first night, Bouffant Bouffant played at 10:15PM, followed by Justice at midnight, Sango at 1:15AM and Sherelle at 2:30AM. Leeon, Arca, Papi Juice, Shyboi, Joey LaBeija, Last Japan, and DJ Heather played sets on subsequent nights.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these events were intended to grow from small club events to larger raves across the world.
The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work.
In one scene the actor Jeremy Strong plays a Chairman of a major record label. On the walls: a clock, two framed records. The Chairman is flanked by another figure. Both are dressed in suits, wearing ties, and are positioned behind a long boardroom table. They are opposite a shadowed figure in the foreground — the Recording Artist — whose subjectivity the viewer is to inhabit.
The Recording Artist attempts to explain to the major music label the singles distribution model as opposed to the long-form album model. The Recording Artist believes the latter to be outdated, and that releasing singles is more suited to modern consumption habits where people curate their own playlists which are then shared within private circles. The meeting does not appear to be productive.
The photo series coincided with the planning of three Blonded live radio events that year. They were held on three Thursday nights towards the end of 2019, in the basement of the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York. On October 19th, 24th, and the 31st, 2019, doors opened at 10PM. A custom nightclub with vintage lighting fixtures was installed for the duration of each party.
On the first night, Bouffant Bouffant played at 10:15PM, followed by Justice at midnight, Sango at 1:15AM and Sherelle at 2:30AM. Leeon, Arca, Papi Juice, Shyboi, Joey LaBeija, Last Japan, and DJ Heather played sets on subsequent nights.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these events were intended to grow from small club events to larger raves across the world.
The Recording Artist has since changed his mind about the singles model, and is again interested in more durational bodies of work.
