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The Weeknd - After Hours

Posted: 2/1/2021 by Sam Bailey ( See All) Show:
(2020) The Weeknd is no stranger to finding himself in terrible situations where he is left to his own devices: The most recent Grammys, leaving home at 17, making it in California, etc, but the most recent album by Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye finds him alone again, quite literally. The first track on his 2020 album "After Hours", titled "Alone Again", is a synth-filled lament about his current, loveless situation that will sound incredible as a concert opener once the time comes to be around other people safely again. The Weeknd aims to detail a broken relationship in "After Hours", the following song "Too Late" taking the form of a more modern-sounding, rhythmic song full of interesting moments of echo and voice modulation that embodies what "After Hours" is all about: the past coming back to haunt him and how he decides to cope with it this time. Up next, "Hardest To Love" and "Scared To Live" are reminiscent of 80s ballads with a bit of drum and bass influences in the former, and a crooning vocal inflection in the latter that personally reminds me of the vocal runs Michael Jackson and Prince are so well known for. Now is a good time to mention, Tesfaye is heavily influenced by Michael Jackson, an early mixtape of his containing a cover of "Dirty Diana", yet he is far from "ripping off" or copying any of the 80s stars he idolizes, instead developing his own style that shines through in "After Hours". If you missed "Beauty Behind The Madness" and "Starboy" era Abel, you're in luck, because "Snowchild", a falsetto-filled, biographical piece on how he always cared for the other people into his life, even at his own loss, only to leave to go to LA, which he then promptly plans on leaving in a low point on the album, "Escape From LA". "Escape From LA" isn't necessarily a bad song, it just sounds like a lesser version of "Snowchild" that takes place in the future and tells the listener exactly how the relationship the album details went downhill. Finally, after many songs, the toxic, disgustingly extravagant Abel we know and love comes out in "Heartless", the result of trying to cope with a bad relationship in Sin City. If you follow the story of the album via the incredible "After Hours" Cinematic Universe (AHCU), Abel is in Vegas licking frogs to see what happens to his head and spending all his money in what I would call the beginning of his downfall, until it abruptly ends in "Faith", his realization that he lost what he once had, and a swift removal from the casino into the "back of a flaaaaashing car", which is either an ambulance or a police car, since he is close to being dead and arrested after his wild night out in "Heartless". The Weeknd has had his moment of catharsis, now it's time for him to fix things in "Blinding Lights", the biggest single of our time right now, breaking a multitude of records of sales and streaming alike. Besides being a genuinely great song, "Blinding Lights" is a timeless song with catchy melodies, a great bass track, and the unmatchable feeling that you've heard this song before on the radio years ago, and that there's no way this hasn't existed for years. "Blinding Lights" is his manifesto of feeling bad, that he needs to make things right, but he only goes and finds his lover with someone else in "In Your Eyes", yet another single that broke records and managed to get Kenny G of all people involved. Another catchy song with an incredible instrumental that has some great saxophone sections to compliment The Weeknd's immaculate vocal performance and ability to create an atmosphere. "Save Your Tears", my personal least favorite single and only song that I usually skip on the album, is catchy but seems a bit sparse by comparison to the lush production of the other songs in the album. Still, intensely catchy and whistleable, just not my cup of tea, despite the neat vocal compression in the chorus that reminds me of the second chorus of "Call Out My Name". Oh boy. "Repeat After Me (Interlude)". There's no good place to start with this other than that Mr. Kevin Parker of Tame Impala helped produce this and provide the opening vocals. This is one of those interludes that makes me sad that it's only an interlude, since it's gorgeous beyond all words and reminds me so heavily of "SKELETONS", which Parker helped Travis Scott produce as well. "Repeat After Me (Interlude)" is The Weeknd's final acceptance of defeat to his lover's new significant other, in which he tells his former lover that they're only doing this out of spite, and to "repeat after me" when it comes to saying "you don't love him". Now that he knows that part of his life is over, the title track comes in with a throbbing synth line and more falsetto that sounds so regretful and sad, which cuts out to a funky little drum and bass track that contrasts the loss-filled subject matter. After receiving the coup de grace from his lover, the final admittance that it's over, The Weeknd has nothing to turn to but himself in "Until I Bleed Out", in which he sings over a very, very minimal track about his regrets and need for stability in his life. The song ends on a quiet blip of what sounds like a reprise of the title track, and the official album closes, leaving the door open for the 3 deluxe tracks and the few remixes that it got (hello, Lil Uzi Vert on "Heartless"!). As a whole, "After Hours" is The Weeknd's most realized and story-driven album in my humble opinion, and that comes with the lofty expectations of being both a new album from such a critically acclaimed artist and having to come up with a whole new character, in this case the "red suit character" as Abel lovingly calls him. In conclusion, "After Hours" was one of the best things to come out of the quarantine, and I can't wait for the continuation of this 80s style version of The Weeknd to become a household name, and to maybe be this generation's Michael Jackson. If anyone can do it, it's definitely the guy behind this album. Enjoy "After Hours"!

Recommended If You Like: 80s music, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, redemption arcs

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