Frank Ocean reveals debut studio album’s release date, name ‘Channel Orange’

channel ORANGE Teaser Thumbnail, Tumblr.png

Tumblr: @frankocean.

Frank Ocean announced the name and release date of his debut studio album—Channel Orange, available everywhere on July 17, 2012—through a video posted on Tumblr.

The two-minute teaser opens on a still shot of a tan minivan’s rear, before panning to the side and top of the dimly lit vehicle parked on the side of a street. RGB glitch effects are visible, as if the clip is being played through an old television or computer monitor. It ends with an orange commercial bumper reading “channel ORANGE” and “7.17.12” between up/down arrow keys, reflecting the video game aesthetic seen on the singles artwork.

Playing in the background of the teaser is a snippet of Ocean’s latest single, “Pyramids,” which he released on SoundCloud a few hours after posting the video. He also shared dates for an upcoming Channel Orange Tour in July and early August on Tumblr.

Watch the Channel Orange teaser video below.

YouTube re-upload (Tumblr: @frankocean).

Update 2012-07-10:

Frank Ocean and his label, Island Def Jam, released Channel Orange a week early as an iTunes-exclusive digital download. Accompanying the album is a digital booklet containing artwork, lyrics, and credits. The second page of the PDF displays a photo of a scene very similar to the album’s teaser video. It shows a dark station wagon parked alone on a residential street at night. The car’s amber lights reflect off the road, trees, and houses surrounding it, giving the photo an orange glow. A light emanating from its backseat illuminates its foggy windows, suggesting some steamy or smoky activities are going on inside the sedan. Parallel lines stretch vertically across the image, emulating interlaced scans and making it appear as though it is being viewed on a television monitor.

Additionally, alongside the iTunes release, a 30-second version of Ocean’s album teaser is airing on TV and online as a commercial sponsored by Best Buy. It advertises the July 17th in-store release of Channel Orange on CD.

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