The New King of Pop
The Weeknd’s (Abel Tesfaye) new project really struck a chord with me. Read on and find a track-by-track reaction to the album Hurry Up Tomorrow, the grand finale to his After Hours trilogy.
“Wake Me Up” –– This first track sees Abel once again confront the loneliness and isolation induced by fame and megastardom. Over a lush instrumental courtesy of French house legend Justice, Oneohtrix Point Never (of Uncut Gems soundtrack fame), and frequent collaborator Mike Dean; The Weeknd begins, “All I have is my legacy / I’ve been losing my memory / no afterlife, no otherside / I’m all alone when it fades to black.” As an album opener, its thematic and musical elements are reminiscent of Starboy’s eponymous opener where Abel joined forces with another French electronic legend in Daft Punk. “Wake Me Up” signals the beginning of the end of the After Hours trilogy where Abel’s dark night of the soul reaches its tragic conclusion.
“Cry For Me” –– This track’s hard-hitting hi-hats and bass hearken back to Abel’s work on the three songs which form the backbone of his 2015 project Beauty Behind the Madness: “Often,” “Acquainted",” and of course, “The Hills.” Whereas before Abel bragged about only “calling at half past five,” this chorus sees him at his most vulnerable. He belts out, “I hope you cry for me / Like I cry for you / Every night for you.” Oh, how the tables have turned for the Canadian lothario. As a brief aside, this track yet again features contributions from Mike Dean (who produced much of the album) alongside ATL legend Metro Boomin.
“I Can’t Fucking Sing” –– This interlude refers to the infamous incident in September 2022 when Abel lost his voice during a concert at the SoFi stadium in Los Angeles. He was subsequently booed by fans and forced to cancel multiple shows as a result. Having realized his perception as a commodity moreso than a person, Abel is forced to reckon with the dehumanizing effects of fame. This dark revelation informs much of the commentary on fame throughout the album.
“São Paolo” –– Wow, just wow. Blending Brazilian punk, vocals from Annitta, and typically lustful lyrics, “São Paolo” is the experimental pinnacle of the album. Originally released as a single, I think the song actually works better in concert with the album. I especially love how the Brazilian funk vocals return for the song’s outro as Abel croons, “Take it easy, easy on me.” Oh, and if it wasn’t obvious already, Mike Dean’s synths on this track are simply divine.
“Until We’re Skin And Bones” – Oneohtrix Point Never’s influence is readily apparent on this industrial instrumental interlude with cascading synths and peculiar extraterrestrial laser noises. Yeah, it’s a weird one for sure.
“Baptized In Fear” –– On my personal favorite track, Abel recounts a terrifying episode of what seems to be some sort of paralytic panic attack. He sings, “ I fell asleep in the tub, I was there with paralysis / My foot hit the faucet, water started flowing in / Couldn’t scream for help, I just slowly felt the pressure hit / Moving one toe was the only form of motion left.” The haunting outro of “voices will tell me that I should carry on” (what voices? where are they coming from?) flows seamlessly into the next track in one of the most efficient transitions on the record.
“Open Hearts” –– Never is Michael Jackson’s presence more authentically felt than on this anthemic track. Featuring a driving base line and pulsating synths courtesy of Swedish hitmaker Max Martin and (you guessed it) Mike Dean, the track sounds as if Quincy Jones had produced it himself. I especially enjoyed the cryptic opening lines, “I can hear the wind blow, even through the window.” Sounds like something Robert Plant or Syd Barrett would pen after a couple tabs of acid –– not your standard pop fare but still infectiously catchy.
“Opening Night” –– Meh. I suppose as an interlude or soft intro to “Reflections Laughing” it’s serviceable, but there’s nothing much to admire about this track. It is one of the rare filler tracks on the album.
“Reflections Laughing” –– On an especially dark record, Abel indulges his self-destructive urges and pens lyrics like, “I’m trapped inside a gilded cage / A golden blade I’m sharpening.” Midway through the track, he is implored by a friend over the phone to put down the drugs and pick up the self-care but, as evidenced by Travis Scott’s durgged-out, psychedelic verse, Abel is still postponing sobriety. As Saint Augustine put it in The Confessions, “God grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” Florence + The Machine also supply backup vocals for the chorus in one of the album’s most pleasantly surprising appearances.
Enjoy The Show” –– Another collaboration between rap’s king of toxicity and The Weeknd doesn’t disappoint. On this ballad romanticizing drug abuse, Future is at his most vulnerabe since at least his Save Me mixtape. He croons, “I can’t live without you, I been going through withdrawals / You’re my favorite drug, you’re my favorite drug / Got me in my feelings, back drinking mud.” Future’s vocal run on the second “favorite” is especially gratifying to the ears as Abel’s inflection of the “back drinking mud” lyric.
“Given Up On Me” –– Metro Boomin’s interpolation of Johnny Mathis’s chorus to “Wild Is The Wind” at the beginning of the song is stunning. Also covered by artists as varied and distinguished as Nina Simone and David Bowie, the sample’s inclusion is a testament to Abel’s sophisticated sonic palette. Now, in contrast to the wholesome sample, Abel is at his most toxic on this track which seems him open with, “I’ve been lying to your faces / I’ve been always wasted, it’s too late to save me.” In the pre-chorus, he delivers one of the most devastating couplets on the album with, “I’ll always lie to you / I’m unreliable.” About halfway through the track, a second sample is introduced before abruptly shifting a downtempo lounge vibe reminiscent of Abel’s 2018 EP My Dear Melancholy,.
“I Can’t Wait To Get There” –– Not a bad track by any means but a little tame in comparison to “São Paolo” and some of the other album highlights. The instrumental and children’s choir vocal sample don’t really sound like Abel’s usual fare which definitely threw me for a loop. It’s definitely funky but would probably be better served on a Thundercat or Mac Miller (R.I.P.) album than on this project.
“Timeless” –– The most radio-friendly song on the album is coproduced by Pharrell Williams whose influence is all over the instrumental. It has the crispiness of his production for Clipse and reminded me also of some of his work for Lil Uzi Vert on Luv Is Rage 2. Pharrell even received a shoutout with Abel’s lyrics: “Feel like Skateboard P, BBC (Billionaire Boy’s Club, Pharrell’s clothing line) boys on the creep / Feel like it’s ‘03, Neptune drum with a beat.” Meanwhile, Playboi Carti turns in a respectable verse with his typical references to avant-garde fashion labels like Rick Owens and Comme Des Garçons.
“Niagara Falls” –– The Metro Boomin production on this track seems perfectly suited for a Drake feature but perhaps, given his evisceration by Kendrick Lamar, Abel opted against including him on this project. With a sample from “Someone to Love”by Jon B (Ft. Babyface), the high-pitched vocals and echoing synths are delectable ear candy. Also, some uncharacteristically wholesome lyrics include: “I used to love you girl before the sun goes down / in Niagara Falls” and “I had you up in the St. Regis before it was the Trump.” All things considered, it’s definitely a track with radio potential.
“Take Me Back To LA” –– Unlike After Hours’s “Escape From LA,” Abel here yearns to return to the bright lights and big city. Sonically, Abel’s baritone is especially soothing when he utters the lines “I left too late” early in the track. Thematically, the track sees Abel confront many of the issues that pervade the album such as his loneliness and isolation. For example, after averring that “it’s better when [he’s] by [himself]” in the first chorus, he eventually admits that “[he] hates it when [he’s] by [himself]” in the final chorus. Yes, he can accept isolation, but at what cost?
“Big Sleep” –– This is a track with enormous potential. Interpolating electronic legend Giorgio Moroder’s “(Theme From) Midnight Express,” the instrumental features haunting synths and strings. The opening and closiung of the track, however, leave much to be desired, and the main middle part only runs for a meager minute. Initially, I thought the track might reference Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (made famous by Howard Hawks’s noir adaptation), but this turned out to be wishfu, thinking. In any case, the sample and lyrics are terrific: it’s just a shame we didn’t get more of it.
“Give Me Mercy” –– Sure, it’s a serviceable dance-pop song. Clearly indebted to Michael Jackson, it incorporates a fairly cookie-cutter (albeit catchy) chorus: “Give me mercy like you do / And forgive me like you do.” Yet again, Max Martin is the puppetmaster of the production, and it’s no surprise considering he produced “Open Hearts” the other obvious Jackson homage on the album.
“Drive” –– With bouncy, synth-forward production and soaring choruses, “Drive” is one of the highlights of the album’s B side. The lines “I just want to drive / I just want to drive, tomorrow” will be stuck in your head as you’re cruising down the freeway.
“The Abyss” –– The minor-key arpeggios. The Lana Del Rey feature. The fatalistic lyrics. Yes, yes, and yes, “The
Abyss” is a tour de force that rewards repeated listens. The piano instrumental in the beginning sounds like something off an early Adele album before it metamorphoses into something demonic that sounds plucked from Abel’s prior work with Gesaffelstein. And the Lana Del Rey outro is just delightful –– her insisten question of “Is a threat not a promise?” will have you thinking, and singing along.“Red Terror” –– Nestled towards the end of the album is this tender track about the enduring relationship between parents and their children even across great physical and figurative distances. See the chorus: “Hush my child, you’re mine / All my life, I try / To keep you warm when I go / You’re still my child, don’t cry.” Sonically, the cascading synths undergirding the chorus are something to behold.
“Without a Warning” –– “Take me to a time / When I was young / And my heart could take / The drugs and heartache without loss / But now my bones are frail / And my voice fails.” So does Abel begin one of the most on-the-nose tracks on the record. Directly referencing the voice-loss incident as well as his addiction issues, Abel reiterates some of the album’s major themes as we near its end. Production-wise, it’s fairly standard par-for-the-course although there seems to be live instrumentation at the song’s outset? How intriguing.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow” –– The album’s titular track and outro rehashes many of the major themes seen throughout the album. Notably, Abel concludes “So I see heaven after life / I want heaven when I die / I want to change / I want the pain no more.” On this closing ballad, Abel seems to be yearning for a better life and aspiring for some sort of catharsis. And after this, the track’s instrumental loops back into “High For This,” the opener to his debut mixtape House of Balloons. Will Abel ever break the cycle?
Thanks for listening with me.
