By Haiyi Bi
Boston University News Service
When The Weeknd first appeared in 2011 with “House of Balloons,” an R&B album featuring songs about drugs, sex and self-loss, he was only 21 years old. The album incorporates electronic, independent rock, alternative pop and other genres, creating a unified, unique, gloomy, dark sound.
The artist’s debut can be seen as a raw and haunting introduction to his world, reinforced by the mixtapes that followed, “Thursday” and “Echoes of Silence.” They were both released in 2011.
“After Hours,” released in 2020, has a retro-pop and aesthetic approach. “Dawn FM,” which was released in 2022, has a more conceptual approach, immersing listeners in a surreal purgatory of synth-heavy, radio-inspired storytelling. Both mark the first and second albums of the artist’s trilogy.
While “After Hours” embraced neon-drenched ’80s nostalgia with tracks like “Blinding Lights” and “Save Your Tears,” “Dawn FM” pushed further into existential themes, presenting an eerie, almost meditative journey through life, death and self-reflection. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” does both; it continues the synthpop style and contemporary R&B in the first two albums in its 22-track finale, but differs in its unconventional narrative and more chaotic nature.
From the dark and strange “After Hours” to the dreamy and brilliant “Dawn FM” to the desolate and fading “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” the trilogy is centered on night, dawn and day, respectively. However, “Hurry Up Tomorrow” no longer continues the overall structure of the first two works.
Instead, it turns to a vague interweaving and mixing of styles and genres. Interestingly, Brazilian Funk influences tracks 3, 4 and 5, “I Can’t F***ing Sing,” “São Paulo” and “Until We’re Skin & Bones.” Fans and listeners were surprised and praised this new twist to his music.
“Been saying it since the NFL snippet – your ears pick up on thing, and that sound was incredibly unique,” a Reddit user commented.
The well-known music review platform, Pitchfork, compared it with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
“But, before the Weeknd can take a nosedive into a place of no return, his harmonies crescendo and usher in a bright, familiar rhythm: the infectious boogie of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,’ ” Pitchfork wrote. It’s drawing similarities between the beats in “Thriller” and The Weeknd’s “Wake Me Up.”
In 2023, The Weeknd produced the HBO series, “The Idol,” setting a buzz between his fans and the general public. Casting familiar names like Lily Rose-Depp, Jennie Kim and Troye Sivan, this show was high on conversations.
People criticized it for its extreme nudity, claiming it hypersexualizes the star industry. Yahoo entertainment included a quote from Melissa Henson, vice president of the Parents Television and Media Council advocacy group: “The program’s extreme and disturbing content — nudity, sexual abuse, torture — can be harmful to young viewers.”
The show explores the inner workings of the music industry, portraying it as exploitative, a theme that some viewers found to be poorly executed.
The show is going through an identity crisis, according to BBC reporter Laura Martin: “It seemed to be many shows masquerading as one: was it an erotic drama, exploring power dynamics in an S&M relationship? Was it a satire on the absurd nature of the music industry? Were we meant to fear Tedros, asked Vulture, or laugh at him?”
The Weeknd fan base has been clearly split into two groups in reaction to the show. Some believe that it negatively changed their opinions of the Canadian singer.
There are also fans like Reddit user “Significant_System_3” who posted, “It’s Fine if The Idol Changed Your View on The Weeknd,” expressing how people should evaluate his music and this show differently. The user is also claiming that The Weeknd already showed his problematic characteristics in his music, “we aren’t supposed to view him as sexy, we’re supposed to see it as what it is, pathetic and kind of sad.”
“I still like his music, but I don’t support the show. I don’t listen to the singles or watch the show past episode 3 since that brush scene,” Significant_System_3 said. “But we shouldn’t be calling those fans ‘stupid’ or ‘immature’ for it, especially if their reason is that he had a hand in creating the problematic aspects of the show.”
This trilogy has now come to an end. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is a party-style summary of his aesthetic preferences since the 2020s. The Weeknd seems to be disassembling his music personality into a fully fleshed-out drama character, much like the Tedros he showed in “The Idol.” If “After Hours” was about losing oneself in the night and “Dawn FM” was about confronting the afterlife, then “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is about waking up and wondering what’s next.
Whether or not Abel Tesfaye will continue his career as The Weeknd remains unknown. “The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as the Weeknd,” he said in an interview with W.
“I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as the Weeknd. But I still want to kill the Weeknd.”
His “After Hours Til Dawn” 2025 Tour kicks off on May 9 in Phoenix, AZ. It supports this album and takes fans on a final, theatrical journey through his sonic evolution.
