After a long two-year period of absence, you might have thought that all hope was gone; but Christmas night proved us all wrong. Frank Ocean made a comeback. The American artist returned with a special winter episode of Blonded radio – the artist’s own music show that combines playlists, interviews and exclusive tracks. And as the tradition goes with the California-born crooner, he took the occasion to air nine minutes of unreleased music of his own.
Away from media spotlight since the unfortunate loss of his brother in August 2020, Ocean has understandably been quite quiet and removed himself from the industry’s spotlight. Having had to navigate through grief while the whole world was on halt, the surprise X-mas episode delves right into the matter by revealing excerpts from a conversation the Odd Future member had with Dutch motivational speaker and extreme athlete Wim Hof.
“We spoke for a while about his work, the purpose of grief, and how going into the cold water changed his life. It reminded me of conversations in the studio with players I know. Freewheeling, psychedelic, emotionally charged, intelligent, and generous. I enjoyed listening to him, so in this edit I just let him speak uninterrupted” Ocean explained on his Instagram story.
Although on a temporary music leave, this last episode of Blonded gave fans and enthusiasts enough to nibble on and patiently wait until any potential announcement of a project in the times to come. If music might seem like his priority at the moment, Frank Ocean did not keep his arms crossed at all as, since the past year, he’s been sitting at the helm of his own luxury label Homer. Set to headline Coachella 2023, we hope to not have to wait until then to listen to the unreleased songs teased through the show again.
