Mention Abel Tesfaye’s moniker The Weeknd over 4 years ago, and nobody would’ve known who you were talking about. The 25-year-old, Ontario-born singer exploded onto the R&B scene in March 2011 with his debut mixtape, House of Balloons. Garnering unanimous praise, the mixtape ventured into Tesfaye’s life of drugs, sex and partying through a somewhat dark lens. It was catchy, disturbing, and exciting all at the same time, yet nobody even knew the man behind the project at the time. Abel released 2 more mixtapes that year, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, and started to step into the spotlight a little more. After signing with Republic a year later, the mixtapes were reissued with 3 bonus tracks under the name Trilogy. A year later, Abel would release his first studio album proper, Kiss Land, which was met with a little more confusion than praise, given the departure of 2 of Trilogy’s primary producers, Illangelo and Doc McKinney, as well as several stylistic changes. While it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, it failed to push Abel into the mainstream. A few well-known features (Ariana Grande’s “Love Me Harder” and an early version of Sia’s “Elastic Heart”) and soundtrack appearances later, and Abel began to make a name for himself. It’s all been leading up to his latest record, Beauty Behind the Madness. Featuring production by Max Martin, as well as the return of Illangelo, Beauty Behind the Madness is Abel’s attempt to finally make The Weeknd a household name, after a handful of successful singles and features. Partly drawing from his older material while dabbling in pop, the record does a fine job living up to its initial excitement.
Opening track “Real Life” starts out with a dirty electric guitar leading into a full string section. Combined with Abel’s voice, the song comes across as accessible and beautiful at the same time. It’s a very exciting precursor of what’s to come. Following track “Losers” features guest vocals from singer Labrinth, and is backed by a ragtime-inspired piano and handclaps, which lead into a well-produced instrumental for a chorus, filled with synthesizers and guitars. The bridge is Abel’s first chance on the record to add some power to his vocals, and it leads nicely into the outro which contains more instrumentation akin to that of a big band. It’s a drastic departure from Abel’s previous work, but it works in his favor.”Tell Your Friends” was co-produced with Kanye West (who also provided backing vocals) and is one of the few cuts on the record that sounds like his earlier material. It’s also the first track in this collection that explicitly dives into Abel’s signature drug and sex-filled lyricism. Musically, it’s very laid-back, and quite similar to something you’d hear on House of Balloons, and the inflection in Abel’s voice reminds me a lot of his one-off promotional track “King of the Fall”. It’s definitely one of the best-produced tracks on the record and gets better with each subsequent listen. “Often”, one of the first tracks released from the album, follows in a similar vein, yet it’s less-natural in its instrumentation and more electronic. Within the context of the rest of the tracks, it fits quite nicely for two reasons. The first reason is that it’s still dialed down like its predecessor, but not as much, so the transition between those two track was thought-out quite nicely. The second reason is grounded more lyrically and visually, but it’s still interesting looking back at it now. The reasoning is that, in conjunction with the track’s music video (in which Abel has socialized with several women), it resembles some sort of a lyrical narrative in the following track “The Hills” (which lyrically references his encounters with the aforementioned women). The connection hit me after several listens and I was impressed. “The Hills” is another highlight of the album, production-wise (although I’m not fond of the mixing). Abel gets to use his voice in numerous manners, be it his signature crooning and falsetto, or this darker, more serious-sounding, low register singing. It’s attention-grabbing and well-executed.
“Acquainted” musically sounds like a hybrid of “Often” and “Real Life”, but definitely stand on its own. A demo that leaked a few months before release under the working title of “Girls Born In the 90s” was slightly underwhelming in a few ways, particularly in the blending of Abel’s vocals with the music at hand. Singing in a slightly-lower register this time, the track sounds straightforward but very effective. The best parts of the demo were included at the very end of the song, which served as a nice transition into following track “Can’t Feel My Face”. The first time I heard this song, my excitement for the entire record was peaked. I knew it would be both a critical and commercial success. Musically, the track has a strong, upbeat funk feel filled with airy synthesizers and a catchy bass riff. Max Martin handled the production very well, which is probably why it’s as successful as it is. Lyrically, it’s one of Abel’s tamer tracks, as to appeal to a broader audience. This track alone made him a full-blown pop star, and placed right in the middle of the album, it acts as a cornerstone for the record’s sounds. “Shameless” starts out with an acoustic guitar in a manner that reminds me a lot of “Rolling Stone” from the Thursday mixtape. The instrumentation is minimal, but I couldn’t see it done any other way. The electric guitar riff in the bridge is a great way to lead out as well. This song could be considered an ideal deep-cut in my book. It’s not single-worthy, but it’s definitely a highlight. I was a little confused by the inclusion of “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)” on this album, given the fact that the blending of the Fifty Shades of Grey narrative wouldn’t fit well within the rest of the tracks, but an extended intro wins my approval. Featuring practically no electronic instrumentation, the orchestral ambiance probably inspired a few other songs on the album. Again, I’m positive its inclusion was based solely on its chart success and the film it was attached to, but it’s not an entirely terrible decision. “In the Night” is a front-runner for my favorite track from Beauty Behind the Madness. Another gift from Max Martin, it comes off as a Michael Jackson clone in every sense of the word. The lyricism, Abel’s vocal inflections, and the strong, uptempo beats scream his influence on Abel’s work, particularly “Billie Jean”. Abel has covered “Dirty Diana” on the Echoes of Silence mixtape, but this track could definitely give that cover a run for its money. It’s definitely the highlight of the latter half of the record.
“As You Are” borrows heavily from Echoes of Silence. Featuring numerous layers of synths and synthetic drum beats, it’s probably the emotional hard-hitter of the album. It’s dark and honest, and while Kiss Land was still a great record in my opinion, if the entire body of work sounded like this track, it would’ve garnered more praise from Abel’s fanbase. It captures the neo-noir influence of films like Blade Runner a little bit better that his previous album. “Dark Times” took me several listens to appreciate. I’m not a huge fan of the track’s guest performer, Ed Sheeran, but the slow blues feel and guitar work combined with some of the production elements of Abel’s previous tracks made it a really good duet. I say duet because it honestly feels that way with the back and forth of each other’s vocals. It’ll still take more listens to earn my full enjoyment, but I definitely respect what each artist brought to the table and how the made it work. “Prisoner” was teased a few different times at shows and had many fans excited from the beginning. I was looking forward to it as well, but for different reasons. Musically, the instrumentation is quite similar to “Often” (with the exception of a more prominent bass and quite possibly a piano). What makes me appreciate this track is the guest vocals from Lana Del Rey. As review Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop put it, “Abel is the bad boy Lana’s always singing about, and Lana is the naive party girl plaything Abel is always singing about”. From a lyrical standpoint, it just works. Album closer “Angel” has also grown on me quite a bit. It pulls from the best orchestral bits of this record and puts them all together in one track. Each section of the song builds upon itself and keeps building until the end. The inclusion of a children’s choir is a little strange, but that’s made up for by the uncredited vocals from new artist Maty Noyes, who made a brief but prominent appearance. Like a few other tracks, it’ll take a few more listens to fully appreciate, but it closed out the album perfectly.
Upon listening to The Weeknd for the first time last winter with House of Balloons, I had fallen in love not only with the attention-to-detail put into the music and its production, but how Abel Tesfaye wasn’t afraid to take risks as well. With each following release, he took even more risks. Sometime they paid off, sometimes they didn’t. Beauty Behind the Madness shows Abel taking his biggest risks yet. This pop-heavy collection could’ve taken a turn for the worst, but it went in the opposite direction, and it worked out great more often than not. The guest appearances were executed very well, the blending of different genres was done nicely, and Abel’s devotion to his fanbase still remained through it all. Granted, some fans will be distraught by the lack of instrumentation that was found on Trilogy, but those like me who are newer to The Weeknd’s work, will enjoy this record just as much as Trilogy. I was in the minority that loved Kiss Land but wondered how he could pull off this record after its lukewarm reception. While Beauty Behind the Madness isn’t a perfect record, its numerous strengths outweigh its weaknesses. It’s hard to call this a “pop album” but I wouldn’t deny calling it one of the best “pop-inspired” albums of 2015.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEI4qSrkPAs[/youtube]
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