I have a flashback! I press the play button on this highly anticipated new The Weeknd album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow”, I raise the volume and listen to the first track Wake me up.
I am wrapped in a cinematographic atmosphere, such as the dark and dystopian beginning of a film. Then the beat starts and I have a clear reminiscence of the past: Thriller by Michael Jackson. Evident, impactful, strong.
The expectations behind “Hurry Up Tomorrow” are very high. Perhaps it is the most anticipated album of the year, the one that will make more media outcry. He is the star of pop unusual. The parallelism with Michael Jackson is almost obvious. If Michael was still alive, would he play like The Weeknd? I really think so!
The first consideration is that it is a discone, understood in the sense that it is full, full: twenty songs and two intro for almost an hour and a half of music.
The second consideration, which in fact binds him somehow to “thriller”, is that the album is almost more a film, an introspective and psychological thriller, an artistic testament, a concept; The perfect following of his production, the third and last chapter of the “trilogy” after “After Hours” (2020) and “Dawn FM” (2023).
The album is undoubtedly the most enigmatic and difficult of Abel:
All I have is my legacy,
sings on the funeral notes of the opening of Wake me upperhaps the final chapter of his enigmatic alter ego, The Weeknd.
Famous is a disease, “he says in Drive, after confessing:” I just want to die when I am at my peak “.
In the final title track, however, it seems to have found a resolution:
Then burn me with your light / I have no more battles to win ”.
The closure of a sound and conceptual journey between ascent and decline, between the myth of fame and its inevitable dissolution.
On the album there are few guests, but incisive and functional to his musical idea: Lana del Rey, Travis Scott, Future, Florence + The Machine, Giorgio Moroder, Playboi carti and anitta.
Musically, the disc is retrofuturism, the new vision of pop in its globality and interconnection. The Weeknd goes beyond the limits and contemporary boundaries with its kaleidoscopic mixture made of electronics, synthwave years, urban, trap, soul and r & b.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow” is not just an album, but an immersive experience that drags the listener on an emotional and visual journey.
At the first listening it is cool. Full of potential hits, but also of depth and complexity, with the first part, without a shadow of a doubt, more dares and experimental than the second.
If this is really the last chapter of the The Weeknd saga, you could hardly hope for a better ending.
The curtain closes, the applause and the inevitable standing ovation start.
PS. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” will become a film released at the cinema on May 16, starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan. But this is another story …
To listen immediately
Wake Me Up – São Paulo – Enjoy The Show
To skip immediately
Would you skip a compelling movie? You replied!
Score: 8.50
1. Wake me up (Ft. Justice) – Vote 8.00
2. Cry for Me – 7.50 vote
3. I Can't Fucking Sing —-
4. São Paulo (Ft. Anitta) – Vote 8.00
5. Until We're Skin & Bones –
6. BAPTIZed in Fear – 7.50 vote
7. Open Hearts – 8.00 vote
8. Opening Night – –
9
10. Enjoy the Show (Ft. Future) Vote 8.50
11. Given up on me – Vote 8.00
12. I Can't Wait to Get There – vote 8.00
13. Timeless (Ft. Playboi carti) – Vote 7.75
14. Niagara Falls – Vote 8.00
15. Take me back to the – vote 7.50
16. Big Sleep (ft. Giorgio Moroder) – 7.50 vote
17. Give Me Mercy – 7.50 vote
18. Drive – 7.50 vote
19. The ABYSS (Ft. Lana del Rey) vote 8.00
20. Red Terror – 7.50 vote
21. Withut a warning vote 8.00
22. Hurry up Tomorrow vote 8.00
The votes of others
The indeed – vote 10.00
Clash -Voto 9.00
NME – 8.00 vote
The Telegraph – 8.00 vote
The Guardian – Vote 6.00
