The Last Weeknd: how the singer said goodbye to his pseudonym

Nearly an hour and a half of sound - 22 tracks - features features with Lana Del Rey, Future, Playboi Carti and Travis Scott. The Weeknd is seriously approaching the completion of a trilogy begun with the ultra-successful After Hours CD and the less high-profile but still positively received Dawn FM. The special interest to the new record was fueled by the singer's promises to part with his pseudonym after the release of Hurry Up Tomorrow and start a completely new stage of creativity. Whether he will keep his word - we have yet to find out, but the fresh record already contains a lot of experiments. "Izvestia" listened to the long-awaited release on the first day.

Not the end of the movie

If among singers Taylor Swift sits at the top of pop-Olympus, then among singers the most probable contender for the No. 1 star status is The Weeknd. Here are the actual statistics: Save Your Tears has 1.8 billion views on YouTube; Blinding Lights is the most listened to song of all time on Spotify (it has been played more than 4.68 billion times). We would like to add that The Weeknd currently has 27 songs that have crossed the threshold of 1 billion listens on Spotify. For comparison: Taylor Swift has 14 of them, the most popular of which has 2.74 billion streams.

Such success to the Canadian artist provided, first of all, the albums Starboy and After Hours. Actually, the listed singles were presented in the second of these records. It also became the beginning of a trilogy. But the continuation of the cycle - Dawn FM - did not reach such heights. It seems that the press accepted the disc favorably, and the concept (imitation of radio air) was appreciated by everyone, but - the songs simply didn't hit the spot, judging by The Weeknd's standards. Except Take My Breath was a real hit, memorable for a long time. Still, against the background of Save Your Tears and Blinding Lights, its chart and streaming results look modest.

In addition, Abel's reputation was damaged by a questionable movie experience - the series Idol (2023), which caused a storm of criticism for exploitation of sexual themes and low artistic level. The Weeknd acted in this project as showrunner, scriptwriter, lead actor and composer, and only to the last role the public had no special questions. In the end, HBO decided not to launch a second season. For accustomed to the triumphs of the artist is a big blow to the ego.

From movie ambitions, however, he did not give up: in May in the U.S. should be released in the psychological thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow, where together with The Weeknd (again, standing at the role of the project) starred Jenna Ortega, star of "Wansday", and the production budget amounted to $20 million. But it is reported that the picture is based on a music album - and we can only guess what is primary and what is secondary: the songs or the movie. Maybe the new record should be treated as a soundtrack?

Experiments instead of hits

If so - all the better, because there is a lot of pleasant music here, but with catchy motives and something that would shoot out - again there is a tension, just like three years ago in Dawn FM. It's interesting that Abel didn't include the song Dancing In The Flames in the tracklist, which was initially positioned as the lead single of the future record. It's a questionable decision, because, as they say, a fish is a fish out of water. Dancing In The Flames may not be a super hit, but it still had a very memorable motif. What can't be said about the numbers included in Hurry Up Tomorrow.

Abel just doesn't seem to be interested in making hits anymore. Compare his duet with Lana Del Rey The Abyss from the new album with their collaboration from eight years ago - the beautiful single Lust For Life from the singer's longplayer of the same name. Clearly, The Abyss has no chance on the charts and no one is going to listen to it on repeat. But The Weeknd claims something different here - he creates a dramatic musical monologue under piano figurations, which suddenly turns into Lana's airy vocals.

There are many such experiments, unexpected style combinations, tricks with electronics and vocals (including guest stars) in Hurry Up Tomorrow. Dry hip-hop beat in Enjoy The Show, rave electronica in São Paulo, retro synthesizers in Take Me Back To LA (one of the prettiest tracks, by the way). Strictly speaking, the material on the disk could have been used to make two separate albums, more cohesive and focused. But The Weeknd took a different path, which is preferred by top rappers - Kanye West, Drake, Travis Scott - who turn their opuses into colorful, ambitious collages.

But The Weeknd has an important trump card: an outstanding, instantly recognizable voice. And if you like vocals above all else, Hurry Up Tomorrow will not disappoint. For all the lack of hook motifs, it's just a very melodic record. Abel's gentle roulades are almost physically pleasing, and the fact that their "shards" don't cling to the ear and seem to glide through our consciousness may even be a plus. On the one hand, we have an ideal background music, not too annoying and not distracting from the business, on the other hand - it is interesting enough to listen to it purposefully, concentrated, without tripping over sticky turns.

However, we will be able to fully appreciate the project only when we watch the movie. Well, while the artist's fans can get used to his style metamorphoses, the public indifferent to The Weeknd's work is unlikely to encounter songs from Hurry Up Tomorrow beyond their will: it is clearly not the repertoire that sounds from every iron and is endlessly played on the radio and in cafes. Is that a bad thing? The question is philosophical.