★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

it makes sense on a purely artistic trajectory too. instead of making sad fetishizing drug music, make happy fetishizing drug music. crazed disco influenced cocaine cowboy is a very viable cultural avatar.

Agree that since his sad party boy routine was an act it's not too much of a stretch to go to a happy party boy act, but I haven't heard anything from him that makes me think he could pull off that sound.

Also R&B circa when Weeknd was making R&B > Top 40 pop circa now, so that's an inherent downgrade imo

Top 40 pop is finally starting to not suck again! I'm totally about this Desrouleaux-wave, especially a nice turnaround since I once considered that guy my mortal enemy. I honestly thought CFMF was him the first time I heard it.

Rev otm. I don't know what kind of illness I'm reeling from that made me vulnerable to Desrouleauxist weeknds.

who would have thought jason derulo would be the one to flourish of the post-chris brown wave of pop-r&b acts

Well, it wasn't gonna be Jay Sean.

Should've been Iyaz, obviously

who would have thought jason derulo would be the one to flourish of the post-chris brown wave of pop-r&b acts

It was going to be either him or Trey Songz imo

or jeremih, although I guess that's starting to happen

might have happened sooner if his first big song hadn't been "Birthday Sex"

this "what's going wrong with jeremih's career" piece is already about eight months old now
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6327425/jeremih-holding-back-his-career

Derulo always found more success on the pop end of the pop-r&b act spectrum, compared to Trey and Jeremih, who I think are both much closer in style to more traditional R&B singers than him. Derulo's pretty much a non-factor on the R&B charts up until Talk Dirty, but is consistently scoring more pop airplay than Trey Songz and Jeremih.

listenability / talent scale is Jeremih > Trey >>DeRulo imo but, yes the inverse has proven true in terms of pop breakout success

first heard "earned it" while shopping for groceries and was like "this is kind of a jam oh my god no it's the weeknd"

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, July 29, 2015 11:32 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why

xp I enjoy all three of them much more than abel of course!

first heard "earned it" while shopping for groceries and was like "this is kind of a jam oh my god no it's the weeknd"

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, July 29, 2015 11:32 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why

― nose, Wednesday, July 29, 2015 2:27 PM

b/c Brad has to eat?

forks otm

alfred otm

not really a fan of "earned it" or "can't feel my face" at all and i am not optimistic about the new album but i do really dig the trilogy mixtapes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

12. Dark Times featuring Ed Sheeran

going to be the title of my book about popular music in 2015

A+

the singles are definitely the best things on the album

that does not make me look forward to the album

just started it (for review purposes, i've been over the weeknd for a minute now tbh) and it opens with what is m/l a power ballad

this does not bode well

Interested to hear this. Curious to see how he balances his creepy, creepy persona with big pop ambitions. Does he tame it, or does he run with it?

track two all of a sudden becomes a very synthetic version of big bad voodoo daddy or some neo-swing/lounge shit, like...the moves he's making aside from doing "can't feel my face" don't make any logical sense

xp it's somewhat tamed. same basic vibe but not quite as egregiously gross...which might be worse?

oh yea if HoB is the best thing he's done (which i think it is) then full-on creeper is the best look for him prob

sad creeper that is

yea i still kinda like some house of balloons stuff, esp "the morning"

this is gonna sell a zillion copies bc of his preestablished fanbase but it's a mess 5 tracks in. it's fine for him to nakedly grab for pop stardom but to do so with a complete lack of sonic cohesion amounting in 2 ok singles and one pretty good one seems dumb as hell?

not to mention for a wannabe popstar his stage presence is absolutely nonexistent (feel like i've said that before, apologies if repeating self)

i'm curious to hear "In The Night" since that was the one in the NYT article that supposedly made his song publisher scream "IT'S BILLIE JEAN! IT'S BILLIE FUCKING JEAN!"

agreed xp, i will def rep for the morning. i still like house of balloons, the other two mixtapes aren't bad imo but HoB is def the best one

the "can't feel my face" video is so telling too! nobody except for maybe one person in the audience gives a shit that he is up there and i know that was intentional but it was such a weird effect since he is trying to give his all onstage

there's a talkbox guitar solo on one track, a track that already makes no sense for him bc its an...acoustic ballad

i hate this

i'm curious to hear "In The Night" since that was the one in the NYT article that supposedly made his song publisher scream "IT'S BILLIE JEAN! IT'S BILLIE FUCKING JEAN!"

― some dude, Friday, August 21, 2015 3:28 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is just as MJ-aping as "can't feel my face," arguably more so, so...it's kinda decent? but these two tracks arent the norm really

This album is such a slog.

at one point on the song prod by kanye he sings "i'm never rocking white i'm like a racist" when......................

that song is amazing

im that nigga w the hair singin bout poppin pills fuckin bitches livin life so trill

if i had heard this album w/o knowing the narrative their pushing about this being his turn as POP STAR i wouldn't really have thought that much was different

yea def its not commercial at all

track two all of a sudden becomes a very synthetic version of big bad voodoo daddy or some neo-swing/lounge shit, like…

lol agree w/ this tho not a gl

shameless is good also

wow album is terrible

dunno whose idea this was but man alive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuV_O1vaLVQ

lmao at dude on the floor sobbing

o my holy god

"someday my son you will be briefly noticed for being emotionally overwhelmed by lana del rey's guest verse and immortalized on film, how do u feel"

(tbf lana's verse is good, prisoner is a decent song)

can i post on this shitty m board again yet

lol no sry