Coming off the doubled celestial experience of 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Dawn FM, R&B extraordinaire The Weeknd culminates his legendary prowess with Hurry Up Tomorrow, the last album under his famed moniker.
In this new project and its upcoming cinematic tie-in set to release in May 2025, The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, explores his own rock bottom, and what fate lies in tomorrow and experiencing career insecurity. As with the albums that came before it, this album cycles through romance, anguish, and egoism while grooving through funk, electronica, and even hints of alternative.
As an intro track, Wake Me Up feels like the beginning of the end of longtime fame. Tesfaye itches to awaken himself from fear and paranoia, feeling like his life – or more explicitly, his persona as The Weeknd – is heading down a perilous spiral. With the help of the symphonic electronic duo Justice, he buries himself in his synth-layered music reminiscent of his previous endeavor, Dawn FM.
Cry For Me is a soul-stirring cry for help pained with potentially dwindling fame. Tesfaye croons for his ex-lover’s assurance when he “can feel my spirit slowly leaving” or “wash my fears with whiskey tears.” In other tracks like funky Open Hearts and the sensually synched Niagara Falls, he continues his streak of melodic yearning and learns to face his pride regarding past romances.
Often, Tesfaye will pursue themes of fear and death on tracks like Baptized in Fear and The Abyss. In his agony, he captures doomed mortality and searches for a saving grace even if “voices will tell me that I should carry on.” Big Sleep also haunts the tracklist with its grand motif on the “forever night” that drowns out hedonism and is infused with the sweet, sad waves of synthpop and autotune.
On the piano-ladened The Abyss, he pairs this mortal fear with exploring the other side with a lover. Whether this is tragically romantic or potentially unhealthy is still up in the air for me, but still, I think this song motions a trenched sadness which could be thanks to songstress Lana Del Rey. As Tesfaye’s frequent collaborator, her presence on this song matches perfectly with the washed-out vibe of the track.
Although tracks like Enjoy The Show and Red Terror dim the stellar tracklist a bit and don’t leave lasting impressions, they also help deepen the cinematic narrative that later tracks better establish.
Still, Tesfayne goes all in on dark club bangers like São Paulo and Timeless. Featuring Brazilian pop darling, Anitta, São Paulo is a dark synth odyssey you might hear at a rave or your aunt’s Zumba class. The song alternates from gutsy to carnal to enlightened, conveyed through the incredible synth mixing that meshes with funk carioca – or Brazilian hip-hop.
I hate to say it but even with its alleged AI usage, Timeless is an incredibly starry trap titan in a tracklist with already timeless bangers. Playboi Carti flips between his signature rap cadences and what I can only describe as melodic stoner crooning before Tesfaye overtakes with all the ego to proclaim, “Ever since I was a kid, I been legit.”
Reflections Changing is a wistful display of balladry that strips back layers of a falling “hero” who is “trapped inside of a gilded cage.” When I saw Florence + The Machine and Travis Scott as features, I was skeptical about how these two artists could work together, but The Weeknd masterfully played to each of their strengths.
The first half of the song is imbued with Florence Welch’s artistry: her haunting croons, sweet background harmonies, and artful ambiance. Meanwhile, the second half is pure Travis Scott with his signature melodic trap grooves and pitched-down, gritty vocals, reflecting a depressing conscience of someone who’s “been in fire, livin’ fake.”
Wanting to rewind to simpler times, Take Me Back to LA and Drive both lean towards 80s new wave to create atmospheric youthfulness fighting against pained and famed adulthood. Whether it’s detailing specific scenes from childhood or driving away from your problems, these songs give listeners a glance into lonesome stardom and the need to just go back.
Amidst dooming fame and the fear of death, there looms the need for change with the title (and final) track, Hurry Up Tomorrow. Shedding the skin of The Weeknd, Tesfaye unravels himself satisfyingly, unleashing his final confessions before entering into a new phase of good in his life. Through celestial echoes and otherworldly symphonies, he confirms his self-realizing need for change against prolonged pain.
To conclude such a tremendous trilogy of albums is not an easy feat but Tesfaye brought his best game with this record. I look forward to seeing how it connects to his film and how he continues to establish himself musically and cinematically, perhaps as simply Abel Tesfaye.
Score: 8.5/10
Favorite Track(s): Wake Me Up, Cry for Me, São Paulo, Reflections Laughing, Timeless, Niagara Falls, Big Sleep, Drive, The Abyss, Hurry Up Tomorrow
Least Favorite Track: Red Terror
