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Good things come to those who wait and after four long, hard years, Frank Ocean fans finally have some new music to celebrate… well, kind of. Let’s give a little backstory first to prepare you. On August 1, Ocean held a live stream on his website of an empty workspace warehouse. Shot in stark black-and-white by director Francisco Soriano, the cryptic art piece was clearly a reference to crafting something, but what? Then, on late Thursday night, the video came to life as we heard the opening notes of “Device Control,” a track by acclaimed German visual artist Wolfgang Tillmans.
Also | See: Frank Ocean’s Mystery Stream Seems Fishy
The aptly-titled Endless (now playing exclusively on Apple Music) is a 45-minute “visual album” in the same name, but not spirit as Beyonce’s Lemonade. Whereas, Lemonade was an emotional drama dipped in eye candy, Endless is about the endless hours and hard work put into craftsmanship. The location never changes from the workspace warehouse as we see three men move around it, working a buzzsaw, talking on a cellphone and stacking boxes. We hear sporadic music along with full songs (featuring James Blake, Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, the London Contemporary Orchestra) that demonstrate why the enigmatic Ocean is so beloved, but it’s all kind of bizarre world-building and not the full picture of what we envisioned would be his follow-up to the Grammy Award-winning Channel Orange.
Thankfully, word is that Endless is a prequel to Boys Don’t Cry (the working-title of the official new album), which will come out this weekend (fingers crossed) also on Apple Music
Endless track listing:
1. “Device Control”
2. “Alabama”
3. “U-N-I-T-Y”
4. “Commes Des Garcons”
5. “Wither”
6. “In Here Somewhere”
7. “Sideways”
8. “Deathwish (ASR)”
9. “Rushes To”
10. “At Your Best (You Are Love)”
11. “Mine”
12. Ambience 001: “In a Certain Way”
13. Ambience 002: “Honeybaby”
14. “Hublots”
15. “Slide on Me”
16. “Florida”
17. “Rushes”
18. “Higgs”
