Ocean has been teasing second album Boys Don’t Cry, which would be his follow-up to 2012’s critically acclaimed Channel Orange, for a few years now, but it still seems out of reach.
The album was first mentioned in February 2013 when Ocean confirmed that he had started working in his music studio again. He revealed he was working closely with Pharrell Williams, Tyler the Creator and Danger Mouse.
Meanwhile, assumptions that psychedelic band Tame Impala and Depeche Mode’s vocalist Martin Gore could be potential collaborators were prolific on the Internet.
A year later, the artist stated that his work was nearly finished, and released a snippet of a new song, ‘Memrise,’ on his official Tumblr blog.
The Guardian described it as being “a song which affirms that despite reportedly changing labels and management, he has maintained both his experimentation and sense of melancholy in the intervening years”.
In April 2015, the singer hinted that his continuation to Channel Orange would arrive in July, but no further details were released.
In July 2016, he again hinted at a possible second album with an image on his website pointing to a July release date. The image shows an old-school library card labeled Boys Don’t Cry with numerous date stamps going back over a year.
Ocean’s brother further suggested this release with an Instagram caption of the same library card photo reading “BOYS DON’T CRY #JULY2016”.
The album was ultimately not released in July, although he did launch a livestream on the Boys Don’t Cry website that some suspected was a lead-up to a release.
Ocean’s music producer, Malay, is also uncertain about when the album is set to drop. “Art can not be rushed”, he said, “It’s about making sure the perfect aesthetic for the situation has been reached. To do that takes constant tweaking, trial and error. That goes for any creative situation.”
Malay also claimed there had never been an actual release date for the record. He said: “Never heard of an actual date. Then again I don’t pay attention to a lot of stuff.”
The album is an exclusive deal with Apple Music- leading a string of deals with artists such as Drake, Chance the Rapper and The 1975, that have each given the company’s streaming service an early lock on a hot new record.
If anything like his debut album, Boys Don’t Cry, is sure to be a success. Channel Orange was widely hailed by critics as being innovative and enigmatic, and was nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning one.
Since then, the singer has made appearances through his blog or on collaborations- such as on Kanye’s ‘Life of Pablo’ and Tyler the Creator’s ‘Wolf’.
The debut album has re-entered both UK and US charts. Following the no-show of its follow-up, the record has seen a 40 percent spike in sales and is currently at number 92 on the UK Charts. It is the first time it has appeared in the charts since May 2013, prompting some people to think this was what Ocean intending in the first place.
Although Boys Don’t Cry is still not out there, Ocean has just released an introspective visual album, entitled Endless. The astounding film features 18 songs and includes vocals from James Blake, Jazmine Sullivan, and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.