After the mixbag that was 2015s „Starboy“, The Weeknd realy needed a new direction to go to. And I don’t think that anyone expected the direction to be 80s inspired R&B dream pop. Though this album still has that signature The Weeknd sound, with its overuse of hi-hats, structured trap beats and obviously the godly voice that The Weeknd offers. The album sounds nostalgic yet somehow futuristic – this new approach resulted into The Weeknd’s most conceptually realised album yet, with its simple yet powerful songwriting and broken aesthetic through out the whole album, with few exceptions here and there.
One of the exceptions is definetly the first single „Heartless“, which is easily the biggest banger of this whole thing. But even though this song just slaps, it still has that significant dark undertone, that’s present through out this whole project. The opener „Alone Again“ on the other hand is a slow-paced low-key track, with some really captivating production – and then when the actual instrumentation kicks in? Oh boy, you know you’re in for something special. The song „Hardest To Love“ features some of the most beautiful vocal melodies I’ve heard all year and it really shows how much has Abel grew as vocalist over the years. „Snowchild“ is this gentle and sweet track with moody synths and raging hi-hats, that has some big potential, but is kind off ruined by the second verse of the song – it just felt really out of place and disengenious. „Escape From LA“ is another miss for me – while the song’s introspective lyricism might be enough for someone to keep their attention through out the whole thing, I just find the instrumentation surrounding it to be really weak and forgetable, that I really just can’t pay attention to the message of the song. But it’s truly only hits from here – „Faith“ is a beautiful and heartbreaking gem in the track list, that always manages to make me teary-eyed, „Blinding Lights“ is an absolute 80s inspired masterpiece with melodies that will be stuck in your head for days to come (same goes for „In Your Eyes“, but with a more thick instrumentation this time around) and „Save Your Tears“, even though it sounds like a more well-produced rip-off of Post Malone’s „Circles“, still has that emotional power to it, that you just can’t deny. The only weak track in this half of the album is the interlude „Repeat After Me“, which is, in two words, just forgetable. But then we get the absolute best song on the album, the title track „After Hours“. This 6-minute behemoth of a song is really something else – from the atmospheric and genuenly haunting intro, to when the drop finally kicks in and you just feel like you entered a different dimension. The keys and bass in this are absolutely out of this world, the singing feels tortured, yet gorgeous and the lyrics really tie this whole album together. Then plays the last song „Until I Bleed Out“, AKA the last cry for help – truly a teriffying, yet somehow fitting way to close off the album.
Abel has once again proved, that he isn’t just another cash-grabbing face in the never-ending pop crowd – he proved that he cares about the art that he makes and that he can manage to make a conceptual maserpiece, such as this one, while experimenting with other styles and genres. This really was a ride, from start to finnish, even though I didn’t feel like every song hit the nail on the head, it still was a fulfilling listen through out and in the end felt like a complete and statysifing expirience.
Decent 8/10
