Frank Ocean's New Album Teaches You The Art Of Anticipation, Why Singer Banks His Career On It

By Jane Reed | Apr 28, 2016 04:14 AM EDT

TEXT SIZE    

It's been a while since anyone has heard of Frank Ocean. Aside from that one time where he collaborated with Kanye West on the song "Wolves," as previously reported by JobsNHire. His album has been highly-anticipated and the Boys Don't Cry website still shows the same old Frank Ocean release update: ""I got two versions. I got twoooo versions." #ISSUE1 #ALBUM3 #JULY2015 #BOYSDONTCRY."

So where is this highly-anticipated album? Merriam-Webster defines anticipation as a feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen.

It has been factually a long time for his album to be released and it had already passed its July 2015 release date. MTV spills that it is the art of anticipation.

Like Beyonce's "Lemonade" teaser trailer, it teaches listeners and viewers alike about the art of creating excitement from mystery. Everybody is hunting down clues like that one time, allegedly, Frank Ocean leaked two songs that were supposedly from his super-secret album at a VIP party. Writer Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib describes album release dates like Christmas, when he was younger. People line up in front of stores hoping the records and CDs weren't sold out yet. Now, anticipating album releases is a slow ascent. Hanif describes Beyonce's "Lemonade" release like a historical moment that nobody knew anything about. "I just woke up, and the Internet was quoting words to a song I'd never heard. There were memes that I didn't understand. And then, in the distance, there it was."

In the same way, Frank Ocean could be doing the same thing. Everybody is waiting for that next big thing like he once did before. Industry watchers look at Frank Ocean's career and figured that he is banking his career on this slow anticipation because if he fails, as Hanif said "They will never love you outside like they have loved the memory of what you once gave. Nothing you present to them will be good enough to satisfy what time and distance have imagined you to be." Hanif goes on to say that Frank Ocean needs to wait when people are no longer waiting and release his "magic." Maybe that's exactly what he's going to do. Who knows.

pre post  |  next post
More Sections