★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

thats the most trad R&B thing hes done ha

yeah i really like that

i don't know if ilm is ready to acknowledge how good "blinding lights" is

Sounds good, but gonna be a cranky old man about the blood & bandage look/marketing brand thing. Seems dumb to me

there's some really good stuff on the new album and the production is impeccable

all the 80s pastiche with perfect sound design ends up sounding very much like the last two 1975 albums lol

only oneohtrix point never to make me listen to the weeknd.
just heard the three songs they've made together and although it's visible 0pn's hand, I just can't stand Abel's voice and his performing approach, I'm sorry.

my favourites on here so far are "too late", "hardest to love" and "in your eyes"

gave it a listen. it's not a great album.

as a generally-cohesive showcase of an ~aesthetic~ it (mostly) works. the production is thoughtful + intricate throughout, even deeply compelling in particular moments. but despite him being a competent/occasionally impressive singer, his delivery seldom compels me to pay any note to the songs' lyrical content -- and when it does register, it's usually because it's so bad that it's impossible not to notice. i don't feel anything he's supposedly feeling.

"heartless," the very safe single which deliberately revisits his own very well-trodden territory, had started to grow on me slightly as a radio hit, but here it feels entirely out of place and nearly kills the mood set by the preceding tracks. definitely a dud.

there are good songs, including his current pop smash, which might be the best. overall the album's an interesting rendition of pop's resurgent nostalgia for a decades-old vision of a soon-approaching future*. but it seldom gives anything beyond that.

(* cf dua lipa's upcoming + appropriately titled album, which i have not heard yet but suspect could well be better than this)

a video has been put out for what i guess is the next single "in your eyes" -- starts with an unsurprising but nonetheless contemptible fixation on a woman's fear as she's stalked and threatened by abel's character, then i guess tries to subvert it by allowing her to decapitate him in self-defense. groundbreaking.

I, personally, am very fascinated by how repellent people find The Weeknd and would love to see a deeper dive into how race informs his goth horror aesthetic and the reactions to it.

Haven't seen the video, so can't comment, but I would also like to read such an examination.

The album sounds fantastic, but his vocals (which I have generally liked) are kinda weak and inexpressive on a lot of the songs. The songs themselves are maybe too uniform, but the highlights--"Blinding Lights," "Save Your Tears"--are strong.

Does he choose who remixes his material? Chromatics, OPN, The Blaze as remixers is a great combo. Not sure how much their music aligns with The Weeknd fans, and still haven’t heard the remixes but it definitely piques my interest.

Ok, The Chromatics remix is cool. It’s curious to hear the contrast of the underground sensibility of Chromatics vs The Weekend’s mainstream approach. I don’t think it works 100%, but there’s potential in there. An original feature and production credits a la Daft Punk would have been more interesting than a remix.

I think his singing is across-the-board weaker on this but the songs themselves are across-the-board better

There’s a “The” Blaze now?

They're really good and have dope music videos.

don't recall if i've heard much else but "virile" is a classic for me

The half time show was actually really good.

The mixing was off in the first 3/4 songs - which is business as usual in the halftime show - his vocals were very low, but it sounded good after the song with violins.

The set production was outstanding. Even if you don't care about the halftime show's music, it's always impressive to see these massive logistics and production in action and this might be the most impressive set production so far.

Would have loved to see Daft Punk in there, but I kinda liked that there were no guest artists.

i thought that was a great halftime show, even with the vocals being mixed too low at first. I have to say I completely forgot about the Weeknd's back catalog, this thread is a trip, you'd never think that guy would wind up doing the superbowl halftime show.

Not only did he did he do the halftime show, he also walked more yards than KC.

oh fuck I ruined my joke by writing that all wrong.

not only did he do the halftime show, he also walked more yards than KC

there...

The set production was outstanding. Even if you don't care about the halftime show's music, it's always impressive to see these massive logistics and production in action and this might be the most impressive set production so far.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, February 7, 2021 9:50 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm, they did an amazing job this year

to go from the start of this thread (almost exactly 10 yrs ago) to halftime sb performer is wild props to abel

my 3 and 5 year olds have been obsessed with the weeknd for the last month or two and this halftime show was very magical for them. They only listen to frozen 2 soundtrack, thunderstruck, and the weeknd 'top tracks' playlist.

This guys persona has always been kind of odious so I have little warmth for him despite liking his voice and several songs. The halftime set was pretty good, more for the staging, design and choreography than anything he was doing as a performer though. Props to him for putting his own money into it, which surprised me. Cant imagine everyone doing that.

Isn't that what everyone does for the Super Bowl? Or is it usually paid for by the sponsors? The musical acts don't get paid as far as I know, and that production money must come from somewhere.

no idea, i dont remember seeing much about superbowl performances in the UK until the 00s or so tbh...

my 3 and 5 year olds have been obsessed with the weeknd for the last month or two and this halftime show was very magical for them. They only listen to frozen 2 soundtrack, thunderstruck, and the weeknd 'top tracks' playlist.

― sell her Dior (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, February 7, 2021 10:21 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

read this as "tindersticks" at first and was like wow.

Oh, I guess the football people cover the production costs usually, but there's no fee for the artists beyond that: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a35405738/super-bowl-halftime-performers-money/

weird.

I liked it, cad otm here and in Super Bowl thread

i didn't love the performance... very weird to see a super bowl halftime show where the singer is jammed off to one side on a static stage like he's headlining a festival. i found it pretty boring for that reason... once he finally got onto the field it was fine, nothing that special. seemed like he tried to do something cool as opposed to something that was fun. i've seen better from him on TV tbh

didn’t like it either tbh, good voice ruined by a pretty bad sound mix, he can’t dance and has no stage presence or charisma to speak off, so not a good idea to do a solo show like this.

speak of*

I didn’t really know his music before, I recognized the big hit which I really liked and has been stuck in my head all day. So mission accomplished over here I guess

I'm ten years late on house of baloons. I love this album. wtf was I listening to in 2011? I don't know.

Was def into the mixtapes at the time. It’s some weird type of nostalgic hearing them now though

Rereading the posts from the start of this thread 10 years ago, it’s funny to see how so many people thought the weeknd was a group at first. Who would’ve thought he’d be headlining the Super Bowl half time show 10 years later!

new one is just a repeat of the last except a bit worse. same well-crafted retro production but the songs aren't too convincing overall & it doesn't have the same highlights either.

i hope Robert Beatty made a bunch of dough for this album cover

oh wait, is it the old man pic? i thought it was this: https://www.target.com/p/the-weeknd-dawn-fm-target-exclusive-cd/-/A-85668841

maybe it's both. idk...

old man pic is the main cover, that's a target exclusive cover

lol at him getting mike love's son & bruce johnston to do some totally inconsequential beach boys oohs on a track that does not resemble the beach boys at all

somehow all of this new weeknd stuff has made me get back to this 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ8yZmgKIHU

the best stuff on after hours were where he was least interested in the 80s thing and instead moved towards 90s garage rhythms so of course there's none of that here

I'm not hearing what's supposed to sound "80s" about this album.