“These Days” is an unreleased song by Frank Ocean, recorded in 2018, intended for release as a 7-inch vinyl single on February 25, 2020, serving as the replacement for the scrapped “Little Demon” vinyl. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, the release never materialized. When the first snippet of the song surfaced on April 30, 2023, a $6,200 group buy was setup; the buy was finished on May 2, 2023, and the complete song surfaced online shortly after. The track was possibly intended for release on his scrapped 2020 album, alongside released tracks “DHL,” “In My Room,” “Dear April,” and “Cayendo.”

The song was pressed on vinyl, like “Little Demon,” and sent out to less than 10 customers as a replacement for the canceled “Little Demon” vinyl. With the rapid development of COVID-19, blonded decided to scrap the release of “These Days” as well, and the few customers who had already received the vinyl were contacted by blonded, who traded the customers a copy of their remaining stock of Endless vinyl for the return of the 7-inch vinyl. Subsequently, the song was never ripped and leaked from the pressing.

Two of those customers who had enough time to play the song from their vinyls, verified its existence with blonded.blog, long before the song was heard by the public. The blog has since confirmed that the leak matches the song pressed on vinyl. It is unknown how the song was obtained by leakers; however, the vinyl debacle might provide some insight.

In the week following the song’s leak in May 2023, the Instagram account OCD VS THE WORLD posted a lyric video for “These Days”. Ocean came across the post and jumped into the comments section to confirm the song’s closing lyrics.