The King of The Fall

         The Weeknd has become the largest artist in the world right now. He has almost 63 million listeners on Spotify as well as being ranked number 1 in most streamed artist on the platform. Yet, I remember first listening to the Weeknd at the beginning of 2012, and he was far from the well-known celebrity he is today. There was a lot of mystery shrouding The Weeknd at that time and the music was the only window into his life. With him having such a commercially successful year thus far, I wanted to analyze why he is such a compelling artist and why he has remained relevant over the past decade.

 

            The projects that put Weeknd on the map were his first three mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. They would later go on to be released under a large compilation album in late 2012 under the name of Trilogy. These three mixtapes have gone on to be legendary within The Weeknd’s discography because of how raw and unfiltered they are. They show a life of hedonism from an excessive use of illegal substances to toxic relationships revolved around sex. The song “Wicked Games” has a set of lyrics that perfectly illustrate the energy throughout all of Trilogy which are, “Bring your love baby, I could bring my shame, Bring the drugs baby, I could bring my pain.” Trilogy is still one of my favorite projects from The Weeknd because I had not heard of R&B that included such an honest look on drug addiction and an incapability to stay committed to a girl you love.   

 

            After Trilogy came Kiss Land, which was an interesting album sonically but also a very different sound than anything that appeared on the Trilogy. It got very mixed reviews when it came out and to this day it is my personal least favorite Weeknd album. It is still quite good and it has had a very strong cult following behind it over the years, but I felt that is was not cohesive enough. On Kiss Land, Weeknd was attempting to find the perfect balance between reaching the mainstream while still retaining the darkness and moodiness of Trilogy. He was able to achieve this exact balance on his following album Beauty Behind The Madness. This album was the turning point for The Weeknd because it catapulted him to an insane level of fame. The lead single “The Hills” was a massive hit and has gone on to be streamed more than a billion times on Spotify. This record had a lot of pop appeal production wise on songs such as “Can’t Feel My Face” and “In The Night”, while also still having moody and introspective songs such as “Often” and “Shameless”. 

 

            Following Beauty Behind The Madness came Starboy, which was a full on pop album with most of the songs having an appeal that could land them on the radio. While I really think this album is great, there are many fans that found it to be too mainstream which I think is a fair criticism about the album. Then came a small EP called My Dear Melancholy, which was very reminiscent of Trilogy and it was a nice return to a less commercial sound. It allowed fans like me to have some new material while we waited for his next album. Finally, earlier this year he dropped the album After Hours and it is absolutely amazing. It is an homage, in many ways, to Trilogy but it is a lot more mature in subject matter. Weeknd is finally coming to peace with the idea of settling down and staying with that significant other. He still sings about the women and the drugs, but he is also growing older and wiser. It has been wonderful to see the progression of The Weeknd, from the lyrics to the production he never fails to impress. The Weeknd is one the most interesting artists right now and has been for some time, and I will always be ready for what he has to release next. 

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