More about: frank ocean

After years of waiting, Frank Ocean’s second solo album was finally unleashed unto the world over the weekend. Fans’ reaction has been pretty mixed.

There has been a huge amount of hype over the follow-up to Channel Orange since the debut solo album was a huge hit back in 2012. Channel Orange was Ocean’s first full-length release away from his time with Odd Future, and was critically acclaimed and commercially successful.

Ocean’s second album was widely assumed to be called Boys Don’t Cry, but was eventually revealed to be titled Blond (with some discrepancy over the spelling - the artwork spells it Blond, while Apple Music spells it Blonde), with Boys Don't Cry instead being the name for the 360-page magazine that comes with the album's physical edition.

It finally dropped over the weekend after many, many false alarms. Blond came a few days after the release of visual album Endless, and is only available to listen to on Apple Music. 

The full video for ‘Nikes’ is streaming for free though.

Some fans are absolutely thrilled with the release.

My sexual identity is frank ocean singing about fucking while wearing a yarmulke

— Eli Goldstone (@pauvrelapinou) August 21, 2016

i'm glad i got to move through young adulthood with frank ocean providing the soundtrack and not, like, elvis

— maddie (@moscaddie) August 21, 2016

Frank Ocean is just so important. Goodnight!

— Alex Naser-Hall (@anaserhall) August 21, 2016

Just listened to the new Frank Ocean. Very, very good.

— roxane gay (@rgay) August 21, 2016

listening to frank ocean genuinely feels like warmth and fresh air and lazy summer evenings

— sweet cee (@_christinecath) August 21, 2016

the fact my entire block is NOT playing frank ocean right now is an act of violence

— i should be writing (@arabellesicardi) August 20, 2016

🙏 "never fuck someone u wouldn't wanna be" - frank ocean 2016 🙏

— Aimee Cliff (@aimeecliff) August 20, 2016

Others aren’t as impressed though.

I truly feel bad for the people who had to work on this Frank Ocean album for 4 years. Wouldn't have made it 1 day. Like auto-tuned Xanax.

— Dan Ozzi (@danozzi) August 22, 2016

tfw people call you old because you don't "get" frank ocean pic.twitter.com/J89NoToxHe

— I'm Gary (@noyokono) August 22, 2016

Frank ocean is so extra. He not even big enough to be doing the diva things that he does. He wanna be Beyoncé so bad.

— tink. (@_MissTink) August 19, 2016

THE FRANK OCEAN ALBUM IS TERRIBLE

— Justin (@Justin_Palermo) August 21, 2016

Crying real tears over how dismal Blond/Blonde is.

— Paul (@paulbridgewater) August 21, 2016

Whatever people’s reaction, Blond has been a subject of speculation for a very long time. The album was supposed to be released at some point last year but never materialised, and since then Ocean has enjoyed stringing things out.

Last month, a picture of a library sticker with Boys Don’t Cry (thought to be the album’s title) at the bottom and a string of dates, emerged on his website. The date at the very bottom was July 2016, with the exact date smudged.

When it didn’t appear in July, he then launched a live stream at the start of August, which showed a man sitting at a desk cutting wood, and lasted four days. When it ended though, there was still no album.

So whether you’re a fan of Ocean or not, at least now the news stories will simmer down.

More about: frank ocean