Frank Ocean confirmed that a new album is on the horizon during his Coachella headline set last night (Sunday April 16) – but that fans could be waiting a while to hear it.
Ocean’s set, which was controversially removed from the livestream schedule at the last minute, saw the artist respond to fan’s speculation that his return to the stage after nearly six years meant that new music would be on way.
“It’s been so long but I have missed you,” he began. “I wanna talk about why I’m here, ‘cos it’s not because of a new album – not that there’s not a new album – but there’s not right now.”
He continued: “These last couple of years, my life changed so much and my brother and I came to this festival a lot. I feel like I was dragged out here half the time. We were just dancing in that tent to that music and I know he would have been so excited to be here with all of us and I wanted to say thank you for all the support and the love all the years and the time.”
Frank ocean teasing his new album and saying he missed me, he was so real for that pic.twitter.com/GQ6UtCPZNE
— Number one madi enjoyer (Alpha Male) (@mariojudahfn) April 17, 2023
Hitting the stage an hour later than planned, Ocean made the speech just five songs into his set – following performances of ‘Novacane’, ‘Come On World, You Can’t Go!’, ‘Crack Rock’, ‘Bad Religion’ and ‘White Ferrari’.
His brother – Ryan Breaux – died in a car crash back in August 2020, aged 18-years-old.
Following the announcement, Ocean continued with fan favourites including ‘Pink + White’, ‘Lost’ and ‘Chanel’. He also debuted two new unreleased songs – possibly taken from the upcoming release – before closing with tracks ‘Self Control’, ‘Nikes’, and ‘Nights’.
As of yet, nothing is known of the follow-up to 2016’s ‘Blonde’. In the years since the release of his second full-length album, Ocean has shared a number of one-off singles including ‘DHL’, ‘In My Room’, ‘Cayendo’ and ‘Dear April’. He has also occasionally hinted at a new record, but nothing has materialised yet.
Back in September, Frank Ocean wiped his Instagram, leading fans to assume new music is on the way.
As well as the sporadically shared singles, Ocean also shared previously unreleased music to soundtrack his radio show celebrating the 10 year anniversary of 2012’s Channel Orange’ back in July of 2022.
The artist’s Coachella headline set received a mixed reaction from fans, with some praising the performance while others criticised Ocean for arriving late and ending the performance abruptly.
Ocean was scheduled to headline Coachella in 2020, however, this was ultimately cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic at the time.
Check back at NME all weekend for more reviews, news, interviews, photos and more from Coachella 2023.