America loves a good trilogy, right? When the Weeknd first arrived, in 2011, with the three-pronged House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, he was just 21. Still babyfaced, still growing those Basquiat-like freeforms. In those early, mysterious days, a listening party at a Manhattan lounge was a landmark moment. Over a decade later, the Toronto megastar might have an RIAA plaque for every person who came up to him that night. And, now, Abel Tesfaye’s sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, marks the end of a second trilogy in his catalog. According to him, it could also mark the end of the Weeknd as we know it.
The new wave ecstasy of 2020’s After Hours and the star-studded retro-pop of 2022’s Dawn FM lead up to today’s release: a 22-track epic steeped in the pitfalls of monumental fame. Inspired by a chaotic tour run that ended with him losing his voice onstage, Hurry Up Tomorrow reprises Tesfaye’s penchant for hedonism through the lens of his life on the road. Here’s what you need to know about the longest record of the Weeknd’s career.
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Wait, Is This Really the End?
In a 2023 interview with W, the Weeknd claimed that Hurry Up Tomorrow would serve as a skin-shedding for his career: “The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as the Weeknd,” he said. “I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as the Weeknd. But I still want to kill the Weeknd.” It’s a bit of an opaque statement, but that sense of grief and finality carries throughout the record’s narrative. It’s a funeral of sorts. As pitched-up vocals quiver atop boom-bap drums on “Enjoy the Show,” the Weeknd paints out a self-inflicted death to a scorned lover: “I’m not scared, fuck it, overdose/No one thought I’d make it past 24/And when the curtains call, I hope you mourn/And if you don’t, I hopе you enjoy the fuckin’ show.” By the end of the album, the Weeknd calls out to heaven in hopes of absolving his pain.
Michael Jackson’s Legacy Lives on Through “Wake Me Up”
Hurry Up Tomorrow opens with the Weeknd in the throes of nihilistic despair. Doomsday synths and a percussive heartbeat backdrop lyrics that bask in solitude and beckon toward death. But, before the Weeknd can take a nosedive into a place of no return, his harmonies crescendo and usher in a bright, familiar rhythm: the infectious boogie of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” It’s not a direct sample, but fans online were hyped as soon as they drew the parallel between the Weeknd and the legend he reveres. Both tracks share an affinity for the sinister while offsetting their demons with undeniable danceability.
