My Dear Melancholy,
The Weeknd\'s 2016 album, *Starboy*, was the musical equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster: action-packed, star-studded, with a little something for everyone. Here, he returns to his unfiltered, art-house roots with a release so intimate and tortured, you’ll feel like a fly on his bedroom wall. Stuttering snares, gauzy production, and R-rated lyrics about sex and drugs (“I got two red pills to take the blues away,” he coos through a vocoder on “Privilege”) paint a vivid picture of a brooding Lothario—one that strongly resembles the dark artist we initially met on *House of Balloons*. This time around, he’s tapped gothic electro king Gesaffelstein to bring a sheen to the shadows with neon synths and fuzzy echoes that lift his signature anguish into new emotional heights.
The Weeknd’s new six-song EP finds him in limbo between the bleary-eyed vibe of his early mixtapes and the bulletproof pop stylings of his last two albums.
Wye Oak’s sixth album is beautifully dense, while The Deconstruction proves the Eels haven’t lost their touch for melancholic pop, and Dr. Octagon swings for the goddamn fences on Moosebumps. These, plus The Weeknd, No Thank You, Kali Uchis, and many more in this week’s new releases.
The disco-damaged R&B lothario returns to his moody, introspective roots on a sporadically thrilling six-track EP
Abel Tesfaye's latest recalls his earlier, darker work and finds a new level of honest romantic affliction.
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Abel Tesfaye is all in his feelings. While it isn't a full-fledged return to his House of Balloons era, six-track, 21-minute project My Dear...
From the acclaimed 2011 mixtape House of Balloons, the Weeknd emerged, fueled by the strength of orotund club bass and full-throated existential ruin...
'My Dear Melancholy' by The Weeknd, album review, the full-length is now out on XO
Abel Tesfaye’s surprise EP – the follow-up to the massively successful Starboy – features ghostly and gorgeous production but lyrics that are suffocatingly solipsistic