Frank Ocean Seemingly Teases New Music With Cryptic Studio Photo

Frank Ocean is the most elusive man in music. He’s dropped two studio albums since 2012, yet both were so impactful that he still has the world waiting on release number three. Never mind the fact that it’s been eight years since Blonde. Or that his Coachella performance in 2023 was, to put it bluntly, a disaster. Frank Ocean still captivates the minds of fans. And based on his latest string of social media posts, he might be blessing fans with some brand new music.

Frank Ocean took to Instagram on July 29 to post a series of seemingly unrelated photos. The first two feature the singer on a bullet train in Japan. He’s sitting alongside Julian Consuegra, the founder of the brand Stray Rats. Ocean posted a third photo of the outside of the bullet train. Then, minutes later, he posted the photo that fans have been waiting for. Frank Ocean posted a candid shot of him holding a bass guitar and standing inside a recording studio. The pop icon is making it clear that new music is in the works, even if a release date is nowhere in sight.

Regardless of the lack of details, the IG post marks the first time Frank Ocean has referenced new music in years. The last time the singer talked about his third album was during an interview with W Magazine in 2019. It was during this profile that Ocean teased a new sonic direction. “I’ve been interested in club, and the many different iterations of nightlife for music and songs,” he explained. “And so the things I look at now have a lot to do with those scenes: Detroit, Chicago, techno, house, French electronic.” It’s unclear whether the club influence is still being applied to more recent recording sessions.

The good news, though, is that we recently got confirmation that Frank Ocean is working. The R&B singer’s frequent collaborator, Michael Uzowuru, shed light on the lengthy recording process during a recent profile with the New York Times. Uzowuru didn’t get too specific with Ocean’s master plan (of course), but he did confirm that recording sessions have been going on in Miami, Florida. Frank Ocean failed to provide any captions or context for his Instagram posts, but fans are definitely hopeful that the tease will yield a new album. At the very least, a new single.