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A sprawling and gorgeous blend of R&B, hip-hop, rock, pop and funk, the album came stocked with vivid, poetic accounts of unchecked materialism and addiction, but its showstoppers were songs that seemed to chronicle Ocean’s own heartache, specifically his one-sided affection for another man.

Ocean’s lauded 2012 debut, Channel Orange, marked a watershed in the music industry. But along with Endless, the visual album that preceded it, and Boys Don’t Cry, the magazine that accompanies it, Blonde is the artist’s boldest, queerest project to date. The track, like the encounter, is fleeting, and it’s the only explicit reference Ocean makes to a male partner or love interest over the course of the record’s 60 minutes. “I know you don’t need me right now/And to you it’s just a late night out,” sings Ocean. His date talks too much and is thinking short term.

After this new acquaintance takes him to a “gay bar,” their incompatibility becomes apparent. In the short interlude “Good Guy,” Ocean describes a blind date with someone he met through a mutual friend. The word “gay” shows up just once on Blonde, the long-awaited sophomore album from Frank Ocean.