On February 16, 2011 a young songwriter and aspiring artist uploaded a 14-track mixtape entitled nostalgia, ULTRA for the world to download – for free of course – from Tumblr. Having joined the hip hop collective Odd Future the year before, Frank Ocean’s self-released solo endeavour quickly caught the attention of music critics and fans across the globe and marked the starting point of one of the last decade’s most celebrated and influential forces in music.
One thing can be said for certain about Frank Ocean fans – they are patient. Known for being a perfectionist, Frank has time after time left fans hanging after announcing or teasing the release of projects that later ended up either being pushed back into an unforeseeable future or never seeing the light of day at all. To date, only two albums – channel ORANGE and Blond – are widely available to listeners across streaming services.