Beauty Behind The Madness

by 
AlbumAug 28 / 201514 songs, 1h 5m 13s99%
Alternative R&B Contemporary R&B
Popular
1190

7.2 / 10

On Beauty Behind the Madness, Abel Tesfaye sheds the fat from his disappointing major label debut, Kiss Land. The album plays like a victory lap, with Tesfaye revisiting past glories and embellishing them, and when he harnesses his gift, the results are impossible to argue with.

C

It seems fitting that The Weeknd, who built his early catalog on mystique and myth-making, opens his sophomore album, Beauty Behind The Madness, with a song called “Real Life.” His breakout 2011 mixtape trilogy—highlighted by opener House Of Balloons—capitalized on the mystery surrounding his identity, but ever since…

5 / 10

5 / 10

Abel Tesfaye seems unable of spotting when he's repeating himself. Or perhaps he isn't that bothered?

Check out our album review of Artist's Beauty Behind the Madness on Rolling Stone.com.

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9 / 10

From the grand opening of electric chords on "Real Life," one can't help but feel that the Weeknd's second studio album, Beauty Behind the M...

6 / 10

On album number two, The Weeknd's Abel Tesfaye has stopped falling in love with prostitutes and started writing conventional pop songs instead, to

Abel Tesfaye reaches new musical heights in this dark seduction of the mainstream

6 / 10

65 %

3.5 / 5

The Weeknd - Beauty Behind the Madness review: You could call it a sell-out but you'd only be cheating yourself out of one of the smartest pop records of the year

Helen Brown thinks The Weeknd drop his dated, macho mask.