The Weeknd
Beauty Behind the Madness
Before we start, a question. Have you heard "The Hills?" If you haven't, you owe it to yourself, your family, and your country dammit, to stop and listen to it right now. Did...did you do it? Good.
The Weeknd has, since his mysterious, seemingly magical appearance in 2011 with House of Balloons, consistently refined and honed his sound to get maximum pop effectiveness without compromising his signature: R&B that's creepy as f***. Of course, "The Hills" is a supreme example, with it's horror movie scream sample and lyrics referencing The Hills Have Eyes. But it's more than just creepy and artsy, it's a confession on par with the best Twin Shadow record and as apologetic as Miguel.
The entire message of Beauty Behind the Madness is not the usual hip-hop bravado--the "I don't want to change so deal with it" vibe--but is more like a warning--"I can't change so get away." Even blow-up song of the summer "Can't Feel My Face" is a foreboding message of obsession and lack of self-control. The detached ennui expressed by Abel Tesfaye on the cover art says it all.
As for the music itself, apart for the Weeknd's own back catalogue, I haven't heard anything like this since The-Dream's revelatory Love King in terms of nuance, invention, and extreme catchiness. Both albums strive to redefine R&B (or the blasphemous pejorative "PBR&B") as intellectual pursuits as well as odes to love-not-yet-caught.
While there has been much complaining and gnashing of teeth over the Weeknd's foray into the pop realm, Beauty Behind the Madness shows that such a journey can be just as fulfilling and profound as anything far more experimental. If anything, Tesfaye's transition from unknown to superstar only proves that "going mainstream"--and the access to better studio equipment that brings--only allows you to make your near-constant moralizing over choice and consequence richer and smarter than ever.
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