James Blake has a very good album The Colour In Anything out right now but people just can’t stop asking him about one of his collaborators, the currently missing, Frank Ocean.
If you haven’t been pining for and following every update on Frank Ocean’s third album, firstly congrats on your good life choices, and secondly here’s a quick update. It’s been four years since Ocean’s much-loved last album Channel ORANGE. He seemingly announced that he’d be releasing the follow-up Boys Don’t Cry last July but the month came and went and we were left with nothing but a broken heart. Apart from an appearance on Kanye’s The Life Of Pablo he’s been M.I.A. for years, until he turned up as a collaborator on Blake’s The Colour In Anything.
He co-wrote My Willing Heart and Always on Blake’s album and it seems it’s all anybody wants to ask Blake about. It’s almost as if he’s seen the Loch Ness monster.
The latest to do it is Rolling Stone who did their journalistic due diligence and asked Blake for the scoop on Ocean’s new album. Blake surprisingly admitted that it wasn’t Channel ORANGE that made him a massive fan of the US singer, it was his newer unheard music.
“It’s better,” Blake said about the new music.
“You grow, you improve, you nail a new message to the board. He’s had time to mature. It’s really cool to watch.”
Pitchfork have also asked him whether the new album will be worth the wait to which he replied, “Yes, from what I know.”
“It may be subject to change. He is onto something, he really is.”
And just when it seems Blake does really know something about what the hell is going on with Frank Ocean’s album it turns out, well, he doesn’t. Entertainment Weekly also asked him about it and he said, “I can’t [share any details] because I don’t know any.”
“Nobody knows. You could probably talk to almost anybody involved in that record and I’m not sure anybody would be able to tell you what’s happening.”
So there you go. We can ask Blake about Ocean all we like but we’re not going to get any closer to knowing what’s going on. If not even one of the collaborators knows details, what chance do we have?
James Blake – My Willing Heart
