★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

yes, and in my next post i basically make that point. you're right. chopin doesn't need to be funky. many things don't. this doesn't either - obviously, since loads of people like it! but i would like it a lot more if there were more going on in the grooves. pretty much every song seems designed to be this kind of metallic, skeletal platform for his plaintive voice and not much else, which is fine as far as it goes but for me that's not too far, really, incredible as his voice is.

really like when he sings/falsettos like in rolling stone, the worm turns when he goes into the pleading whine thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORVz_qeKgvg

new Smiths-referencing track pretty nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3VIh8ZB-M8

be careful what you wish for, i'm listening to these live tracks and it's soooo much worse with live guitar and drums.

https://soundcloud.com/consequenceofsound

(i like the production btw, for me it's the whole point)

(i like the production btw, for me it's the whole point)

this.

i care not re how this stuff sounds in a club ..

I wouldn't if djs didn't insist on playing him. :/

.. not my problem ...

sounds great on the ireallylovemusic soundsystem which is all i care about ..

i'm listening to these live tracks and it's soooo much worse with live guitar and drums.

that's how i saw him, with live guitars and drums! well, i say "live"; often the drummer would really wind up and WHACK one of his midi pads and all that would come out would be this tiny, echoing "phoppppppppppppp"

I like his production a lot but his voice gets grating pretty quickly.

It has just occurred to me that he sings a little bit like Maynard James Keenan of Tool.

The new album is going to be called Kiss Land.

You can do better, Abel.

So this guy finally did an interview. This part reminded me of the discussion here.

Where do you see yourself in the world of R&B?

The only thing R&B about my shit is the style of singing. My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince, for the vocals anyway. My production and songwriting, and the environment around those vocals are not inspired by R&B at all.

So is anyone excited for the album? I wasn't big on the first two songs (they're alright) but the newest one is as good as anything he's done https://soundcloud.com/theweekndxo/love-in-the-sky

Long time reader, first time poster..hope I didn't butcher the formatting.

Something that intrigues me about Abel is that he was in this very rare position of having almost universal critical acclaim, and (at least the potential for) massive commercial success. He took this position and decided to do features for...Rich Hil, Wiz Khalifa, and French Montana. He seems to have little interest in keeping the Cool Kids on his bandwagon, which genuinely surprises me, given the image of who I thought he was that I had in my mind.

I've noticed that his hardcore fans seem excited but not necessarily thrilled with his new material, rap and R&B blogs seem almost neutral, and many indie music blogs are not feeling it much at all.

I'm really looking forward to listening to the new album, and I'm interested to see where his career, and the narrative surrounding his career, is in a few years.

had some long thing written and saved, but ditched it copying a network password. so you can thank network passwords. god i had a lot to say itt.

"love in the sky" takes a while to get there, but god from two minutes out. other two are okay. like the portishead sample in "belong to the world" more than the track as a whole.

come on in, monk. keg's in the back, five bucks for a cup.

not loving the "asian lesbian porn" theme, but i suppose that's secondary

Ha, thanks!

Speaking of Belong to the World, is everyone up to date regarding the Portishead "sample" mess?

A total "this guy" Abel moment.

Not usually a "loudness war" guy, but man, the mixing on recent Weeknd tracks has just been brutal. At one point on the new track there's an explosion noise, and it's like, sure, why not, just throw more loud shit in there

He dropped a mini video for this as well, nothing too exciting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weweLG6Or-g

I'm still really loving this song.

Kiss Land is good, based on first impressions. "Wanderlust" is almost disco and the title track is convincingly bleak superstardom cliches over a sprawling seven-minute suite, and his voice sounds better than it ever has.

Not a fan of how they're burying his voice in this, though. But I like the album much more than I thought I would on first listen.

@goinradiodotcom

The Weeknd makes music for straight men who visit Brazil to date transsexuals

there it is

lock thread

the weeknd what you need. conference room
weekend? sucksome!
_o

{sees r&b transsexual weeknd, not weekend}
n-n-n

This album is a million times better than I expected it to be based on the singles. I'm kind of surprised at the lack of an obvious hit, though maybe Wanderlust could make some waves?

The Drake verse on Live For is very lazy and weird sounding.

I could barely choke down a single listen of this. It's all so loud and oppressive. Angry Michael drums are one of my least favorite sounds, and this album is just saturated with them.

you mean like MJ?

Yeah, but not universally beloved MJ. Late period, HIStory, all-caps, paranoid, "more is more can we crank that up?" MJ.

sure, i love a lot of those songs and teddy riley but some of those snare drums are the worst.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/86819/electric-ladies-and-dead-eyed-models-new-albums-from-janelle-monae-and-the-weeknd

etherous

*applauds*

and it's very true, i do really really find myself wanting to like monáe but i kind of don't want to listen to her albums again

After a handful of listens, I think Professional is the best song on here. The album sounds like a natural progression of his earlier work. He didn't play it too safe or too weird. The lyrics, as a whole, are getting a bad warp, but the title track is indeed putrid.

I think I like this, but really I like that he sampled Emika and just keep playing "Professional" over and over

okay I just got to the track that samples "Machine Gun" and um... lost cause here, I don't not actually have the necessary critical distance to dislike things like this

The Grantland article is excellent. I particularly like "Tesfaye revels in degrading women as a hedonistic, publicist-approved pose — he wears his misogyny like Lana Del Rey dons Eisenhower-era evening gowns."

I haven't even gotten to the point where I'm listening to the lyrics, for all I know he could be singing "I just fucked DJP's parents/They're begging me for more/Punched his brother in the dick/And gave his wife a herpes sore"

xp Yeah that's spot on. At some point his music became less a critique of party-culture hedonism and more an exploitative celebration of it. I still don't think he condones all the awful shit he sings about or anything, but he's engaging in some really gross role playing

haven't heard these record but that's great writing.

Someone played this on Spotify in the office today. It was at a fairly low volume and I though, sweet, someone played the Portishead album, I haven't heard this for a while. Turns out it was The Weeknd. Whether it's a sample or not, it sounded exactly like Machine Gun. Barrow's a prick for not allowing the sample and this guy's a prick for doing it anyway and pulling a Vanilla Ice.

ime Monae and the Weeknd's fanbases barely overlap at all.

Time to announce the joint tour!

co-sign m@tt

i dont dislike this but there arent nearly enough hooks

what the shit is the new video

she's not with me any more so she deserves to die?

blogs calling him a "major badass" for it?

what is wrong with people and in particular this creepy beta basquiat-wannabe cunt

what I'm gathering from the general response to this is that I will hate myself for liking this once I start listening to the lyrics

if you just watch the new video it could well cure you of the liking part

true, but OTOH I still think "Kim" is a top 3 (if not the best) Eminem song

Ha that video. It's the candid portrayal of everything that is inherently shitty about The Weeknd we've been waiting for.

Wow, the YouTube comments thread on that video :/