Dear Mr. Ocean,
Can I call you Frank? I’ve spent countless hours listening to your music, and it’s allowed me to connect to it on an emotional and personal level. It’s like you’ve become a close friend to me.
I want to take the time to acknowledge that even though your discography is smaller than most, it is one of the most accessible. The music that you've released (so far) feels timeless.
There is your mixtape, Nostalgia, ULTRA., which was a self-released effort. I will admit to not knowing about its existence until a couple of months ago, thanks to one of my friends I now know. Two standouts were the songs "Swim Good" and "Novacane." Those two songs were so good, that your label - Island Def Jam - decided to release them as promotional singles leading up to the release of Channel Orange. From there, Coldplay heard your talent and invited you to tour with them. Kanye and Jay Z heard the same and invited you to be part of their collaboration album Watch the Throne.
With the release of Channel Orange, you provided a solid body of work that was not exactly like anything being released at the time. People were picking up your album and thoroughly enjoying it. Even music critics loved it. They loved it so much that it was nominated for four separate awards at the 2013 Grammys. The album ended up winning the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary album.
Even after three years, Channel Orange still strikes the right chords and builds up emotion in everyone that listens to it. Your songs on that album are near immaculate. Songs like "Thinkin Bout You," "Pilot Jones," and "Bad Religion" have this easiness to them that make a person just want to sing along. It’s a quality that is essential to a great, timeless album.
What I really want to talk about, though, is the impending release of your second album. We don't know the name of it, but we do know that it will be accompanied by a magazine called Boys Don't Cry. You teased the release of the album back in April with a tumblr post saying: “I got two versions. I got twooo versions…” accompanied by the hashtag #JULY2015.
Now, Frank, we are a majority of the way through July. Every day people have predicted your album will drop has come and gone with nothing, not even a whisper, from you. The fans can barely take it anymore.
You see, Frank: we absolutely adore your work and can't wait any longer for this album. We’ve been staying up till midnight every Thursday just to make sure we don’t miss it if it happens to drop as a surprise. Frank, there’s less than a week left in July. Bless your fans with this album. Please.
