★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

Don't really think it matters whether or not he lives up to the image presented (were critics really hung up on this?) when that image isn't all that interesting or engaging to begin with. I mean carefully planned and deliberate? Yes, but well constructed? I'd say the trilogy was well put together as a whole but thematically you'll love it or leave it (or love it for novelty then quickly get bored as it goes nowhere).

If you make 40 odd songs about the same shit + vague, self referential lyrics, people are going to start drawing connections and speaking to depth that isn't really there.

tsroboto, did you listen to Kiss Land?! For all the times that Trilogy left things a little too wispy, Kiss Land compensated by basically beating us over the head with the grotesque. I would also level the "not engaging" criticism at Trilogy, but Kiss Land was a pretty tremendous departure from that formula.

Yeah, a fair number of times. Problem is you're right he doubled down, but on something I don't feel there was much to in the first place. He fleshed out the skeleton but with more bones. He'd mined that theme for all it was worth in the Trilogy. Plus I wouldn't call more vividly grotesque nihilism a tremendous departure from grotesque nihilism.

I don't think his theme is necessarily nihilistic. There's too much sadness on his tracks for it to be nihilistic in the same way as, say, the YG stuff is. I also felt the Trilogy left a lot to be said. Sure, he spent a lot of tracks singing about creepy sex, but in too much of a distant way to be engaging to me.

I think, for what it's worth, the inherent creepiness of fame, sex, and hedonism is a good theme to mine! It's certainly underrepresented in contemporary R&B. And I think it also provides a nice counterpoint to the (delightful) bullshit peddled by the R Kellies of the scene. It's fun to indulge in the whole freaky luxury sex fantasy, but I think it's also nice to view it from the sadder perspective the Weeknd offers.

we already had one Drake and that was more than enough

Yeah solipsistic would have been a better term, but even that sadness is very muted and in that sense I don't feel Kiss Land steps far away. We don't really learn much more about creepy sex now that its up close.

But did he really mine it? Is there enough irony here for it to be considered subversion? You're right in that there is room for exploration here but I don't think he's really done it to any meaningful degree. He's very thoroughly explored one angle of it, but if its supposed to be an obverse caricature of what the R Kellies are peddling its an extremely thin one to have stretched over 3 and a half hours.

satire is only meaningful if it can be distinguished from the real thing

feel like audience interpretation is a big factor in this too and in my experience half of weeknd stans take this very, very seriously and the other half just think of it as sex music

ha that sounds about right

It's certainly underrepresented in contemporary R&B.

really????

maybe 10 years ago, but in recent years (and arguably before that, though perhaps not in the big pop singles) there's not really been a shortage of r&b artists being conflicted about luxury/fame/hedonism etc. a lot of it has been done rather better than the weeknd too

satire is only meaningful if it can be distinguished from the real thing

― The Reverend, Tuesday, March 25, 2014 1:24 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

there's not really been a shortage of r&b artists being conflicted about luxury/fame/hedonism etc.

This is certainly true but its hard to think of many that went as far as turning it into a consistently depressing horror show.

Is there enough irony here for it to be considered subversion?

It's less overt irony... the irony is there by necessary implication. I refuse to believe that anything that out-there is done without at least some self-awareness.

satire is only meaningful if it can be distinguished from the real thing

Sure, but the best satire cuts close to the bone, too. There's a reason why A Modest Proposal and UHF are considered to be on different levels.

New track:

https://soundcloud.com/theweekndxo/the-weeknd-often

One hell of a street team behind this shit, it's everywhere today

fuck this guy imo

and not in the way that he torturously sings about either

lol this is such garbage

~*~*~*~ no one is surprised ~*~*~*~

The "ooh yeah"s feel like self parody at this point.

this song is p good

it's hilarious how much his own fanbase hates him now. anything new comes out and it's "everything since House of Balloons has been trash" 24/7 on twitter.

Gotta justify past interest in trash I guess

"everything since House of Balloons has been trash"

this is m/l otm tho

i'm not saying they're wrong (although i could never really stomach the early stuff to begin with), i'm just saying even the stans have turned on him.

omg this song

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I should listen to lyrics more often, I feel like I'm missing some great comedy

did he really just sing "she need to change bladder"

are we sure this isn't a Weird Al alias

via rapgenius:

[Verse 1]
I usually love sleeping all alone
This time around bring your friend with you
But we ain't really going to sleep at all
You ain't gonna catch me with them sneak pictures
In my city I'm a young god
That pussy kill be so vicious
My god white, he in my pocket
He get me redder than the devil 'til I go nauseous

[Hook]
She asked me if I do this every day, I said "Often"
Asked how many times she rode the wave, "Not so often"
Bitches down to do it either way, often
Baby I can make that pussy rain, often
Often, often, girl I do this often
Make that pussy poppin', do it how I want it
Often, often, girl I do this often
Make that pussy poppin', do it how I want it
Often

[Verse 2]
Infatuated by the fame status
She wanna ride inside the G-Class Grain, matted
I come around, she leave that nigga like he ain't matter
That girl been drinkin' all day, need to change bladder
She's just happy that the crew's back in town
She 'bout to go downtown for a whole hour
If I had her, you can have her, man it don't matter
I'm never sour, I'm just smokin' somethin' much louder

[Hook]

[Bridge]
Oooh, the sun's risin' up
The night's almost up
The night's almost done
But I see your eyes
You wanna go again
Girl, I'll go again
Girl, I'll go again

[Hook]

a song that cries out for line-by-line annotation if I've ever seen one

"Often"
"Not so often"

track isn't so bad if you jettison all the lyrics but jesus, this as poisonous a song as this year has to offer and that's keen competition

i guess if your pussy rain, it's time to change bladder

[Verse 2]
Infatuated by the fame status
She wanna ride inside the G-Class Grain, matted
I come around, she leave that nigga like he ain't matter
That girl been drinkin' all day, need to change bladder
She's just happy that the crew's back in town
She 'bout to go downtown for a whole hour
If I had her, you can have her, man it don't matter
I'm never sour, I'm just smokin' somethin' much louder

this verse is p stupid but I really like it, enough to listen to the entire song, ahem, often

is there some better remix or edit out there ?

The new Weeknd song is, bad

"the morning" still feels nice

what is wrong with the new song

It's...it's bad. It's bad and not good

he says 'friend zone' in it lol

I'm still gored with an icepick to the forehead every time "Earned It" starts on the bus every morning.

had no idea the buses in Miami played music

shuttle

we're all about that bass

"Earned It" is top 5 this year

Weeknd's sell out crossover material is cool enough with me

working w Max Martin. hmm

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/magazine/can-the-weeknd-turn-himself-into-the-biggest-pop-star-in-the-world.html?_r=0

‘‘These kids, you know, they don’t have a Michael Jackson,’’ he says. ‘‘They don’t have a Prince. They don’t have a Whitney. Who else is there? Who else can really do it at this point?’’

I know we've reached the point where "selling out" no longer has the stigma it once did, but this is one of the most cynical things I've read all year. "I changed my sound because I wanted to be as popular as humanly possible."

he had a top 10 hit with Max Martin late last year, in addition to the new one that is at #2 on the charts. i think those songs are better than any of the cool mixtape stuff, so hooray for pop crossover.

lol you are going to eat those words when some awful, hateful smash single from the upcoming album is inescapable this winter

this dude's music had become so fucking stale, thank god he's trying to become a pop star instead of some sadist fantasy for virgin hypebeasts

i don't think it's cynical as much as it was a realization that he had made 85 of the same songs