The Weeknd – Beauty Behind the Madness
XO – Republic Records
Since his first anonymous song releases on youtube and House of Balloons, Abel Tesfaye’s new album has several expectations to live up to. It’s far from disappointing and births darker hedonistic themes with blaring lyrics of self-indulgence and identity crisis. The Beauty Behind the Madness plays like ones moral compass is spinning in circles: lavish pursuits and a battle for ones soul in potentially soulless acts.
The album opens with Real Life and what sounds like a horn calling for war, building with a clapping beat and cutting off to a symphony echoing with his voice singing, “Tell em’ this boy was a man for lovin’… Mamma called me destructive. Said it’d ruin me one day. Cause every women that loved me – seemed to push them away.” The track is self-loathing, speaking of destructive habits that led to lonerism. The next song, Losers, is soulful and wonderful. It’s jazzy with its trumpets and piano but has retro electric too. A chorus sings, “we did it all alone, now we’re coming for the throne. And now that we all came up, do we lose. So what can you show me, that my heart don’t know already. Cause we make our sense…” Tell Your Friends feeds on the stigma of a rap lifestyle full of drugs, sex, and money, with a message that’s purposefully more than what’s being said. Often is similar, “Bitches down to do it either way. Girl I do this often. Make that pussy poppin’. Do it how I want it.” These are the only two songs on the album that are as blunt and dirty. Hills might be close, slamming a clubbing beat as Abel talks about a booty call. Can’t Feel My Face is incredible, a body shaking song coupled with a smooth Michael Jackson sounding voice saying, “She told me you’ll never be alone. I can’t feel my face when I’m with you. But I love it. But I love it.” The outro even has Jacksons trade mark grunts and moans. In The Night is another song that channels the king of pop. In an alternate universe where the circumstances and time period called for a different M.J. , this might be the result.
Beauty Behind the Madness is more than music; it’s an expression of the artist’s soul. It tells a story that’s relatable to those who feel disillusioned with fame while saying this isn’t always the worst scenario. Regardless of Abel Tesfaye’s renown, he’s managed to withhold his creative touch from the dilution of the music industry, which has a habit of dumbing artist’s ambitions.