There aren't too many big pop albums anymore but when there are they tend to make sense. Taylor Swift, Katy Perry. Even with the more confusing versions of this – Ed Sheeren, Lana Del Rey – you can still wrap your head around why they work. The Weeknd reaching this stratosphere does not make sense. The Weeknd crawled out of a hole in Toronto in 2011 singing about drugs and sex and sex and loneliness and more drugs. It wasn't so much the subject matter as it was the sound, the music, the voice that was so appealing. When I would get high and listen to sad R&B in my college apartment, House of Balloons was in that regular rotation.
Even if there was an aspect of those Trilogy tapes that could appeal to (at least a portion of) the masses, it wasn't music that screamed pop star. It definitely screamed Internet idol and teen girl worshipee but definitely not pop star. Which is why the transition is a little puzzling.
"Earned It" was a cool change of pace for an artist like the Weeknd who not only sticks to the same family of sonic production elements but also tends to recycle the same melodies and vocal stylings. It showed his abilities carrying a lower register, singing over live strings and a down tempo. It was so out of his typical comfort zone that he was forced to not do your typical Weeknd song. The song put him on the radar but he followed it with two Trilogy-esque singles – low synths, pitched up Thursday effects, lyrics about (what else?) sex. "Can't Feel My Face" brought Weeknd out into the open again where fans of "Earned It" stayed waiting. It's an obvious summer hit – Michael Jackson riffs, the perfect bassline.
It's fair to say, in the aftermath of the four singles that prefaced Beauty Behind the Madness, that pop stardom is a technicality. Not anyone can become one, but doing the big song(s) automatically puts you in that conversation, regardless of the type of artist you are. Beauty opens up the sonic color palette Weeknd typically uses, but it's the essentially the same songs he's always written. It doesn't seem totally fair to say with the two Max Martin songs and the 80s power ballad outro, but you generally know what you're getting with The Weeknd.
The hook to "Shameless" asks "Who is going to fuck you like me?" "Often" brags about how regularly that's done. "The Hills" specifies what time of day it's going to happen. If there's anything that seem out of place even in an album that attempts to be the year's biggest, it's the appearances by Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey. Just stop. In this case, the beauty behind the madness is not so different from what we've been used to.
Even if there was an aspect of those Trilogy tapes that could appeal to (at least a portion of) the masses, it wasn't music that screamed pop star. It definitely screamed Internet idol and teen girl worshipee but definitely not pop star. Which is why the transition is a little puzzling.
"Earned It" was a cool change of pace for an artist like the Weeknd who not only sticks to the same family of sonic production elements but also tends to recycle the same melodies and vocal stylings. It showed his abilities carrying a lower register, singing over live strings and a down tempo. It was so out of his typical comfort zone that he was forced to not do your typical Weeknd song. The song put him on the radar but he followed it with two Trilogy-esque singles – low synths, pitched up Thursday effects, lyrics about (what else?) sex. "Can't Feel My Face" brought Weeknd out into the open again where fans of "Earned It" stayed waiting. It's an obvious summer hit – Michael Jackson riffs, the perfect bassline.
It's fair to say, in the aftermath of the four singles that prefaced Beauty Behind the Madness, that pop stardom is a technicality. Not anyone can become one, but doing the big song(s) automatically puts you in that conversation, regardless of the type of artist you are. Beauty opens up the sonic color palette Weeknd typically uses, but it's the essentially the same songs he's always written. It doesn't seem totally fair to say with the two Max Martin songs and the 80s power ballad outro, but you generally know what you're getting with The Weeknd.
The hook to "Shameless" asks "Who is going to fuck you like me?" "Often" brags about how regularly that's done. "The Hills" specifies what time of day it's going to happen. If there's anything that seem out of place even in an album that attempts to be the year's biggest, it's the appearances by Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey. Just stop. In this case, the beauty behind the madness is not so different from what we've been used to.
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