New Album by The Weeknd Shows Full Artistic Bloom
Abel Tesfaye’s meteoric rise to fame at the beginning of the last decade was revolutionary for R&B, ushering in a wave of darker, moodier sounds. This would come to define mainstream pop music as festival EDM and dubstep began to collapse on itself. While not every album by the Weeknd has lived up to his three legendary mixtapes that put his music on the map, no one can deny his abundance of talent and influence his work has on modern music.
After Hours is The Weeknd’s Artistic Apex
Luckily on his newest album, After Hours, it seems Abel has reached his final form. He’s put together a project that combines the best aspects of everything that makes The Weeknd great and injects it with a healthy dose of 80s nostalgia. This is all thanks to his collaboration with legendary vaporwave and electronic producer Daniel Lopatin, a.k.a. Oneohtrix Point Never.
While Daniel doesn’t produce every song, it’s apparent that their chemistry pushed The Weeknd to go all the way on this album, not only perfecting his moody trademark sound but experimenting with everything from drum and bass on Hardest to Love to synthwave on Blinding Lights and a plethora of other tracks on the album.
This is The Weeknd at his peak, giving his listeners an engaging album from front to back. He’s not afraid to experiment or try something new. After Hours solidifies Abel as one of greatest pop artists of our time, and it doesn’t sound like he’s going away anytime soon.
We rate After Hours a 9 out of 10.
Enjoy it on a city walk after midnight.
Best Songs
Hardest to Love
Blinding Lights
