When listening to an album by Toronto-born singer The Weeknd
it’s important to consider the duality of the artist. Perhaps the same could be
said of most acts of a certain level but then, most acts don’t reach this
level. The Weeknd as a recording artist is renowned worldwide and after being
certified diamond, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn’t recognize
the talent. The man behind the act, Abel Tesfaye, is underrated as a storyteller
in my opinion. It’s not just the songs; from the album art to the accompanying
videos, you are taken along on a journey of empty excess and decadence,
seasoned of course with that 21st Century Western flavor.
Now, there’s an IRL context to this album that should be
mentioned. I’ll bring it up in passing later because, frankly, I don’t visit
Stan Twitter and it’s not as important to me. But! It isn't unimportant because it sets the motif for the entire LP. One look at the art direction for the
first single “Heartless” and you can tell.
It’s a Hunter S. Thompson romp through the American desert
but sexier, with better clothes and designer drugs. Abel is playing a dramatized
version of himself giving in to his most base and self-destructive impulses. He’s
young, single, high as hell with too much cash for any of it to matter. He’s
looking for feeling in the wrong places, evidenced by the album art which shows
him busted and bloody. He’s smiling though, because he’s alive
goddammit! This bender takes him up and down the Vegas strip, on foot and in a
supercar. Faster and faster as if to outrun the refrain on the album’s opening
song: I don’t know if I can be alone again.
Here perhaps would be a good place for a footnote. Some
months ago, Abel Tesfaye’s relationship with the model Bella Hadid (once again)
came to an end. This is not the first album inspired by a breakup, nor will it
be the last so long as music making exists. Every artist is different, however.
Not everyone is inspired by real world events to produce their next major
project and Abel was almost certainly writing this album well beforehand. I
must say though that my favorite version of The Weeknd is the one we get in
moments like this. Brooding, slow-paced, atmospheric tracks that build to a
dark crescendo. We didn’t get an album full of that here, but we did get
moments.
None of them were in the beginning portion. Perhaps he
wanted to get the breakup songs dealt with early because the first four tracks
feel like they’re from another album. They aren’t bad, just different. It felt
like a visit from the mid-2010s version of The Weeknd that was singing power ballads
and had soccer moms everywhere reciting lyrics about how much he loves cocaine.
And then we get to “Snowchild” where the first line is about him being suicidal.
We wave to the first single and then make it to “Faith”
which is where this LP picks up for me. Technically, this is another “breakup”
song but it isn’t like the others. As The Weeknd himself tweeted to his fans in
anticipation of this album: “no more daytime music.”
But if I OD, I want you to OD right beside me
I want you follow right behind me
I want you to hold me while I’m smiling
While I’m dying
This right here? Get the Chef’s Kiss out. This right here is
the kind of vibe I want from this genre and this artist specifically. There’s
no way for me to say that without sounding like a smartass but I am one hundred
percent genuine here. I mean, really, this album ends with Abel crooning over a
synthpop beat about bleeding out. It’s beautiful melodrama and it comes from a
real place.
It wasn’t until halfway that I placed why this record felt
familiar to me. The heavy synth and percussion along with the distorted vocals
have quickly become a staple in pop music at the moment. There are many artists
outside the commercial mainstream who have and continue to innovate this sound,
but the one that springs to mind first is the Futurefunk/Synthwave artist
Trevor Something.
Deep, moody vocals with lots of
keyboard is this guy’s M.O. In relation to After Hours, I don’t know how
else to put it but to say that the songs meant for radio play sound…not like
this. The first two singles are polished with crystal clear vocals. The third
single, which as of my writing this has yet to be released, “In Your Eyes” is
more in that vein. I’m interested if he releases “Faith” as a single. It’s
produced by Metro Boomin as the others are and is similar in sound but it also
experiments with that Dark Synth sound.
The Weeknd is in a unique
position. As arguably the most popular musician not named Taylor Swift, he has
at least some say on the pop culture zeitgeist. This LP will do numbers and the
tour, whenever that happens, should be another smash commercially. The real
question: how far left does Abel want to push the scene or does he at all?
It's good to have options when your mind is melting.
