the weeknd

If you’ve listened to the radio this summer, you’ve by now realized the inescapability of The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face.” The melancholy R&B singer’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit spread like wildfire due to its slick bass licks, feel-good summery vibes and a chorus so simple it’s practically engineered to be ingrained in your head.

It’s an unusual song for Abel Tesfaye, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter more commonly known by his stage name The Weeknd, as he casts aside the forlorn vocals and drug-laced lyrics prominent in his prior works for a more radio-friendly sound.

But the co-writers on the track — which include Max Martin, known for his penchant of creating mega-hits like Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off,” and Savan Kotecha, who similarly boasts commercially successful jams like Jessie J’s fiery “Bang Bang” — make sense of that musical shift as they show a concerted effort on the part of The Weeknd to appeal to a broader base.

Yet, like “Can’t Feel My Face,” The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind The Madness seldom feels like a sellout by a once-low-profile artist to score mainstream hits, and instead comes across as a compromise that exquisitely pairs Tesfaye’s pensive, sexually-charged musical roots with his more digestible Michael Jackson-esque style.

“In The Night,” Martin and Kotecha’s other collaboration on the album, is the most obvious amalgam of The Weeknd’s morphing sound. Although the song’s dreamy synths and dynamic chorus would feel out of place in his first two albums – Trilogy, a 2012 combination album of three mixtapes, and Kiss Land, his 2013 debut studio album – they fit right in as a part of the album’s surest bet for another radio-dominating tune.

Both the relentlessly passionate “The Hills” and the massively orchestral “Earned It,” the other Billboard Hot 100 Top 5 songs on the 14-track album, find similar success with captivating vocals and imaginative production. As expected from the Canadian-born rising star, however, most of the album’s songs are far from discreet when it comes to the erotic lyricism, narcotized memories and the despondent ponderings Tesfaye is known for.

On “Real Life,” the album’s feisty first track, growling guitar and somber string instruments accompany Tesfaye as he questions his problems with intimacy before declaring his inability to love another person fully (“Don’t waste precious tears on me/ I’m not worth the misery / I’m better off when I’m alone”).

The next songs on the album spiral into a whirlwind of licentious, doped-up encounters both in the form of the egocentric, progressive-rock “Tell Your Friends” and the raunchy, pounding “Often.”

 

A major shift in tone occurs halfway through the album, as a tender Tesfaye reveals a change in his perception of love during the gentle “Acquainted” (You got me puttin’ time in, time in / Nobody got me feeling this way”). His newfound affection continues from that song, peaking at the smooth, fluttering beats of “As You Are” as Tesfaye’s light, echoing voice utters words of unbridled admiration (“Yeah, show me your broken heart and all your scars / Baby I’ll take, I’ll take, I’ll take, I’ll take you as you are”).

Showing a regression from budding love to pained despair as the album nears its end, Ed Sheeran’s cutting vocals seamlessly meld with Tesfaye’s pained voice during the morose “Dark Times” (“This ain’t the right time for you to fall in love with me”) and wistful chanteuse Lana Del Rey joins Tesfaye in resigning to their addictions during “Prisoner.” The album then concludes with “Angel,” a heartbreaking rock ballad that finds Tesfaye wishing only the best for a soon-to-be ex-lover.

It’s a gloomy ending for an album that showed brief sparks of luminous hope, but for The Weeknd it makes perfect sense. Much will be said about Beauty Behind The Madness’ strong singles, but even more praise could be given to how well-knit the album is overall, both in its funky grooves and gripping storyline that makes it one worth listening to from beginning to end.