After Frank Ocean's recent release of singles "Dear April" and "Cayendo," (read a review by Intersect here) fans are wondering what the future of his music will look like. If you're wondering about Frank's music along with me, then you came to the right place. Later, I will be exploring a theory about what the new album could be.
So, where do I start? Well, it all starts with the release of "DHL" and "In My Room." They're great, yet different to his old stuff, and started a pattern that we have seen continued through his recent releases. The theory, however, pertains to one important part of the album art-- the banner along the bottom--pictured below.
At the bottom, there are small black characters that I couldn't help but notice. Upon getting a closer look, I realized that the icons are silhouettes of Frank Ocean's pose in the single cover, shown with a closer look below.
Not only do the icons match the album cover, but the sequence is almost identical if it is read from the left. When these singles were released, I noticed this but did not evaluate. That is, until "Dear April" and "Cayendo" were released.
As seen in the other tracks, the singles contained one of these icons each. The album cover did not match these icons, but in all fairness these singles are acoustics, meaning that the non-acoustic versions may be on their way. Once I saw these two albums, I immediately referenced the longest sequence that Frank Ocean had put out from "In My Room" and was able to cross some icons off.
With this information, I believe that this is the entirety of an upcoming album tracklist. There will be around 13 more songs that correspond to the icons. It is unclear which way the album will progress, but I'm assuming the tracks will correspond with the icons from left to right because of their order of release.
Whether a far-fetched conspiracy or a scarily accurate guess, keep Frank Ocean on your watchlist for a new album that could possibly support this theory.