For most of the crowd, it was the first time they were seeing him.Īnd he started with "Solo"-an intimate song about heartbreak and solitude. People would be bummed, yes, but they wouldn't be shocked.īut, a little after 9:30 last night, Frank Ocean walked onstage, wearing his headphones, walked up to a Tom Sachs-built boombox stack with chairs, and started fiddling with some plugs. Who knows? Maybe he'll bail just before he walks onstage. Even minutes before showtime, there was a slight bit of tension in the audience at Panorama. So that leads us to the next question: Is he going to show up? It was a legitimate concern. Then he played FYF last week where he serenaded Brad Pitt-all of which was pretty stunning for a variety of reasons. His first show in three years, and he actually made it happen. That is, until he finally made his return at the NorthSide Music Festival in Denmark. He skipped Hangout Music Festival, Sasquatch! Music Festival, and Primavera Sound because of "production issues." His appearance, and his tour even, seemed uncertain. He finished his tour that year, played a couple of shows in 2014, and then largely disappeared.Įven his festival dates this year weren't set in stone. He stood behind a keyboard and seemed overwhelmed and lost. It was a set that was largely his introduction to the larger pop universe. After his impressive debut Channel Orange, he did a brief tour, which included a performance at the 2013 Grammys. He sits among his machines and microphones and tinkers and sings until it's perfect. Then, as Frank was releasing new music, he announced a number of festival dates-among his first shows in half a decade. There's no algorithm, explanation, or strategy-we get the music as soon as it's ready. If new Frank Ocean music happens, it happens. And this year, seemingly at his own whim, he released a few new songs through his own Blonded Radio on Apple.
In 2016, after four years of solitude, Frank Ocean released two albums out of the blue-the visual album Endless and his masterpiece Blonde. The answer to the first two is: There is no answer. The Lessons We Can Learn From Frank Ocean\'s Blonde.
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