Frank Ocean has shared the previously vinyl-exclusive singles ‘Dear April’ and ‘Cayendo’ on streaming services today (April 3).
Ocean first previewed the songs at his inaugural PrEP+ club night in New York City, in October of last year. He then made the singles available as a double A side 7″ for pre-order on his site, and shared remixes of the tracks by Justice and Sango.
Months later, the physical release has been dispatched. Listen to “acoustic” versions of the new tracks below:
It’s the first new song from the enigmatic R&B artist since he debuted ‘DHL’ on his Beats 1 radio show ‘blonded’ last year. He hasn’t released a full length album since ‘Endless’ and ‘Blonde’ in 2016.
In February, it was announced pre-orders of a special 7″ of an Arca remix of Ocean’s Skepta collaboration ‘Little Demon’ would include another special unreleased song.
In a rare interview last year, Ocean said his next album is influenced by club music from around the world and features the work of string arrangers. He added that it would explore themes of strength and vulnerability.
“I believed for a very long time that there was strength in vulnerability, and I really don’t believe that any more. “Strength” and “vulnerability” sound opposite as words. And so to combine them sounds wise, but I don’t know if it is wise,” Ocean said.
“The expectation for artists to be vulnerable and truthful is a lot, you know?—when it’s no longer a choice. Like, in order for me to satisfy expectations, there needs to be an outpouring of my heart or my experiences in a very truthful, vulnerable way. I’m more interested in lies than that. Like, give me a full motion-picture fantasy.”
The singer received some backlash for his PrEP+ club night last year from members of the LGBTQ+ community. Ocean took to Tumblr to address it and explain the rationale behind naming his club night after the drug.
“I decided to name, what was otherwise going to be a night of lights and music inspired by an era of clubbing that I loved PrEP+ because…I started to imagine in an era where so many lives were lost and so much promise was lost forever along with them, what would it have been like if something, anything had existed that in all probability would’ve saved thousands and thousands of lives,” Ocean said.
He continued: “I’m an artist, it’s core to my job to imagine realities that don’t necessarily exist and it’s a joy to.”
