Frank Ocean Reveals Release Date for ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ Album

After posting a mysterious live video stream on his website today (Aug. 1) with an Apple Music logo emblazoned on the top right, Frank Ocean will release his sophomore album Boys Don't Cry this Friday, Aug. 5.

The New York Times reports that the album will drop exclusively via Apple Music and will include a "major video" along with a print publication that will be available at Apple stores.

The album will only be exclusive to Apple Music for two weeks, according to an anonymous source who spoke with NYT, and will then be made widely available after that time window. It's the latest exclusive album stream that Apple has scored after Drake's Views and DJ Khaled's Major Key. Larry Jackson, Apple Music's "head of content," is surely the one to thank for making this happen.

Fans have barely heard from Ocean since his 2012 debut album Channel Orange, which quickly vaulted him to superstar status. He was recently featured on Kanye West's The Life of Pablo and helped co-write songs on the latest James Blake album I Need a Forest Fire, but we've gotten essentially no new music from Frank himself in four years, outside of an Isley Brothers cover from Jan. 2015 and a sketch of a song called "Memrise" that he posted to Tumblr in Nov. 2014.

The mysterious video that Frank uploaded to his website today was apparently a looped art project, according to director Francisco Soriano, who briefly claimed credit for the piece on Instagram before deleting his post. Another collaborator, artist Tom Sachs, told FADER the video "was shot in the past year" and that the two have "an ongoing creative dialogue."

Seeing how Frank has pump faked fans on the album before, the Times does provide the following caveat: "Given the number of delays the album has already had, it seems possible that Mr. Ocean could decide to put off the release beyond Friday."

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