People think he’s talking about his old producer Jeremy “Zodiac” Rose, but the two haven’t worked together since Trilogy, and The Weeknd has done nothing but ascend since. “If they really made me, then replace me.” Damn, fighting words from a smooth crooner on this Starboy chiller. Kendrick Lamar, Daniel Wilson – “ Sidewalks” Here, the sinister crooner describes his perfect woman, a bad b-h who is as self-destructive and beautiful as he is.ġ3. It feels like putting on a really expensive black, leather, motorcycle jacket with a bunch of zippers. It might be The Weeknd’s swaggiest dark dance tune so far. This Weeknd song is so hard, you have to sing along to it with a sneer. Dedicate this slow jam to the special person in your life that you text before you go to sleep and when you wake up but is totally not your girlfriend/boyfriend, because labels are stupid and we are above them, for sure for sure. Millennials are rather famously afraid of commitment, and “Acquainted” is the generational love-song we’ve been waiting for. If his jams weren’t so silky smooth and hard-edged, like this funky Starboy track, he’d never get away with it. That’s a weird place to be, and The Weeknd rocks it well. “Reminder” is an announcement of self in an strange world where, quite literally, The Weeknd wins awards from children’s networks for songs about doing cocaine. This is how you get the industry’s attention.Īs much as drugs are a theme, so too is The Weeknd’s struggle with fame. It’s mostly moody noise, throbbing percussion, and The Weeknd’s mystifying voice. That drug use is the running theme of his catalogue only makes it that much more perfect. So effectively, it’s like The Weeknd sits you down and warns you that you probably wanna be high for the musical greatness that is to follow, i.e. It’s the first track on The Weeknd’s debut mixtape House of Balloons, also known as the first EP in the Trilogy series. “Tears in the Rain” is rather cinematic, as well, and we could argue there are sonic echoes between its composition and the film’s soundtrack what with the raindrop key notes and heavy background synth, but there’s no direct sampling we know of.Īs far as musical introductions go, “High For This” might be one of the greatest of all time. Just as the robot enemy accepts his death, so too does The Weeknd lyrically accept the death of his pre-fame romance. “Tears in the Rain” is dark, beautiful, and sorrowful, just like that scene. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It’s true, and this final track references the climactic speech made by the film’s “replicant” antagonist. The chorus is an A-plus sing-along when you find yourself up in the club with your besties.ĭid you know Kiss Land is thematically based on the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford, and in turn based on Phillip K. It deserved to be there no matter what, of course. Today, the two Canadians are both superstars in their own right, but this joint collab from The Weeknd’s debut studio album Kiss Land may have only landed on radio because of Drake’s feature. One upon a time, The Weeknd was Drake’s protege. Someone bust out the lighter, and please, don’t dance on the hood of the car. He’s getting his Guns’n’Roses on with this epic metal ballad music, too. He knows he’s too dirty for the beautiful woman who’s stolen his heart, and he knows it probably won’t work out, because he’s bound to muck it up, but he still wishes her the best. Here we see a soft, vulnerable, guilty side of The Weeknd not often displayed. “Stargirl Interlude” featuring Lana Del Reyġ8.Kygo Remixed The Weeknd & Daft Punk's 'Starboy:' Listen In addition to two tracks with Daft Punk, the album features Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar and Future.Ĩ. The follow-up to 2015’s Beauty Behind the Madness, the Weeknd’s third studio album Starboy will be released on November 25th via Republic Records. It’s like they’re reading a page out of a novel – ‘We want to make sure that at the end, it feels like the sun’s coming up, and maybe there’s a car chase.’ They can get technical, but it was interesting how they visualize making music.” “But the way they make music, the way they explain it, is very cinematic. “Their studio is like a spaceship there’s a lot of gear,” he said.
He also discussed collaborating with Daft Punk. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, the singer said the 18-track set was significantly influenced by recently departed legends Prince and David Bowie. 70 Greatest Music Documentaries of All Time