You want more? Listen to Endless. It's a 45 minute "song," with a bunch of different little movements. Might just be a preview of the new album, but maybe not.

It's quite a bit different. Starts out with a low-key Jazz feel, then morphes into what I can only describe as some IDM shit w/ vocals. Not crazy mathematical IDM, more like "Avril 14" type stuff, with understated twitches and glitches all over the place. I hear James Blake was part of the production team, and you can hear it.

I was pretty impressed, I must say. Though I don't really understand why it needed to be a "visual" project. The accompanying video was just a bunch of super high contrast black and white images of dudes hanging out in that big room from the teaser, welding, chilling, holding head in hands. Musically though it was pretty goddamn awesome.

Listened to "Endless", I think it was a bunch of sketches that didn't make it to the album? Anyway, it was very surreal.. some Beatles-esque harmonies.. beautiful. And Frank is a damn good MC now. When it was over, I barely remembered anything, felt like I just woke up from a dream.

And he just posted this on his site, so I think the album drops tonight:

Nice.

I'm excited. It's about goddamn time.

If what's on Endless was outtakes from BDC, and the album itself is even better, then... wow.

The new album (the other new album) is called "Blonde" or "Blond" ... It's out now. I bought that shit. :D

after those vids....im really interested in the new Frank Ocean. hoping I should expect something different from the normal r&b norm. from what I hear im excited!

EDIT: fuck it. I bought it.

right!! what is it exactly?

Drake is not gonna like this verse..

"After 20 years in
I'm so naive I was under the impression that everyone wrote they own verses
It's comin' back different and yea that shit hurts me
I'm hummin' and whistlin' to those not deserving
I'm stumbled and lift every word, was I working just way too hard?"



THANK YOU ANDRE.

im definitely loving it. "Ivy" and "Pink and White".

I'm liking everything. Endless is being called a separate "long player," so that's two Frank albums in as many days. NICE.

Loving Blond so far. Loving the feel of Endless just as much.
This might end up being my #2 alb. of the year.

Apparently it's not even THE other new album.. because Frank is set to drop ANOTHER album next weekend. Oh boy.

Sev, did you miss the sub Andre threw at Drake (which I posted in the last page)??

Two new Frank albums over two days. Another one on the way.
Aaand 3K (sorta) dissed Drake. Thank God. :(

This is too much for me, haha.. my head is spinning.

"Blond" doesn't do much for me yet.. it might grow but so far I definitely prefer "Endless."

Channel Orange is still my favorite overall though.

I'm very much the opposite, never understood what was apparently so special about channel orange as it just sounded like an okay rehash of stuff that came before it -- albeit very well produced -- whereas this actually stands up to the unfortunate mythology he's had to bear, it's a genuinely interesting/endearing pop record which approaches the whole concept of r&b uniquely (where his earlier stuff resoundingly did not) as to sort of avoid having to come at it from a specific angle in the first place.

huh!?! I think it's unique.

It is in a way, but it doesn't move me. Andre's little song was my favorite by far.

wow! dude, I think it's an excellent R&B album and even a little complex.

I agree it's a lot more complex than cO, but complexity is not something I necessarily look for in music.

I think I listened to Nostalgia Ultra a lot more than Channel Orange.

I love that mixtape too. That's my 2nd favorite behind cO.

Yeah, I saw that you posted the Andre subliminal, but to be completely honest I didn't quite get it. I think I need RapGenius or something. I went over the verse a few times but I wouldn't have known it was about Drake unless you said something, and even now I'm basically just taking your word for it. :(

Wanna help me out here louder?

I love that "Strawberry Swing" cover on Nostalgia Ultra. It's a total WTF move, but man oh man does it sound good.

fuck all that mess. his new album is good.

I don't know if you remember Drake's verse from Meek Mill's last album, but one of the opening lines was "the girl of your dreams to me is probably not a challenge".. Meek checked up on Drake because he thought Drake sneak-dissed him on his own song with that line, then Drake's camp sent him a reference track by a guy named Quentin Miller to prove him that Drake didn't come up with that line by himself and it wasn't directed at Meek.

When Meek found out Drake didn't even write his own verse, he was HEATED so he went on Twitter and exposed Drake. This is basically how their beef started.

During the process, we also found out that Drake doesn't write A LOT of his shit. The Q. Miller fella had 6 writing credits on "If You're Reading This.." alone. He not only gave him lines but also flows (Drake flowed the same way as Quentin sounds on the reference tracks which were leaked by Funkmaster Flex).

Afterwards it was revealed that PARTYNEXTDOOR gave him a few of his own songs as well, for If You're Reading This as well as Views.

So yeah..
Is basically an elegant, subtle "fuck you" to Drake.

Yep, his take on Hotel California is 10 times better than the original too.

Naw man I don't remember that shit. I listened to that Meek Mill joint like once. But yeah, this is totally awesome. Go Andre.

Three stacks!

hold on now.. the Eagles are terrible and being a California loving motherfucker i might be biased but the original Hotel California is a fucking masterpiece

I have to agree.

Yes, the Eagles are shitstained shit. The basic bitches of classic rock. They make Fleetwood Mac sound like Nirvana, and they make the Grateful Dead sound like something a highly advanced alien race might come up with in a couple millennia. But "Hotel California" is just a solid tune.

I also like "Take it Easy," but I think that's because I listened to it while rolling on a couple double stacked e-bombs once.

The acoustic "Hotel California" is an abomination though.

Pitchfork thinks it's headline news that Drake called Meek Mill a pissy the other day. Isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard?

If 3k is taking shots at Drake on the most anticipated album of the year, how long do you expect it will be before Kanye switches sides?

I'd be interested to see how Drake does publicly without all the heaviest hitters in hip-hop singing his praises. Without Jay, Ye, Future, etc. What if they all turned into Drake haters? :)

Fleetwood Mac is good. Rumours is jam up.

The Eagles are not so good.

I always liked "I Cant Tell You Why"

I know i'm lame.

Tusk is pretty goddamn good too. For real. I actually quite like a good deal of the Mac. Always have. I have a few of their albums. They make NO sense in the context of my greater music collection, but so what.

The first time I heard landslide I thought it was an SP original. No joke.

Hah. That's pretty fuckin' weird man. ;)

Yikes lol. Drake seems to be jealous of Meek because he's in a relationship with Nicki Minaj and won't just let it go, lame.

Jay does dislike Drake. He took shots at him on We Made It remix with Jay Electronica a couple of years ago (after Drake said Jay talks about art too much nowadays in an interview with Rolling Stone):

"Sorry Mrs. Drizzy for so much art talk
Silly me rappin' 'bout shit that I really bought
While these rappers rap about guns they ain't shot
And a bunch of other silly shit that they ain't got"

Oh, I remember that line. Nice enough burn, but could have been stronger.

Louder, I'm surprised by your reaction to this new Blonde. Not as surprised as I was when you flat out hated TLOP, but still... pretty shocked that you aren't more stoked about it.

I think Endless is a more interesting entity and its quietly experimental in a fresh and welcome way, but I REALLY dig Blonde, and I think he chose the stronger individual songs for the actual album. Endless is, like you said, "sketches," strung together in a hypnotic and mesmerizing way. It's awesome that his toss-off material is so strong, and the fact that it all runs together makes it feel very unique. It's great, but honestly I'm glad it's not the album. It's a bit of a tense listen, and the tension never really breaks. So I'm glad Blonde has a bit more to it. I'd be disappointed if channelO was followed up by something as minimal as Endless.

It's hard to compare it to Orange, though. CO is right behind MBDTF and Good kid on the decade's list of hip-hop & hip-hop adjacent classics. I think it would be really hard for something to live up to it right out of the gate. But Blonde has a lot going for it, and I'm pretty sure it'll be a classic itself soon. I hope you give it a chance to simmer.

BTW: I buy that Jay isn't much of a Drake fan, especially now that I'm reminded of that "Ms. Drizzy" verse. I also know Drake made some comments early on about wanting to steal the proverbial throne from Jay.

But why, I wonder, did Jay agree do that now-cut "Pop Style" feature?

"And all you other cats throwing shots at Jigga
You only get half a bar - fuck y'all niggas"

Drake only got half a bar. ;)

Endless was cool for what it was, but yeah. Blond is indeed a good album (I do appreciate it more now after a few listens), but my expectations were WAY too high after cO, I guess. I should've known better. He did surpass it in some ways, but overall, I think cO is far better and it's not even close.

..I'm also sad because Frank is one of my favorite artists and I had waited forever to get this album. :(