The Weeknd : "Hurry Up Tomorrow"

The Weeknd was once one of this blog's most beloved pop artists.  "My Dear Melancholy" was great but not as great as his work before it, with "After Hours" and "Dawn FM" showing a progressive decline into pre-manufactured mediocrity. He diluted his creative vision by dabbling in non-music-related projects along the way. The tale of the tape on this album does not have me going into it with confidence as was rolled off the assembly line by  45 songwriters on 22 songs and 21 producers on this album. The opening track is a multi-layered disco track that could just as easily be Bruno Mars or Justin Timberlake. 

There is a flicker of hope in "Cry For Me" as it's more sonically interesting than the first song, though lyrically his edge feels like it's dulled for mass consumption. "Sao Paulo" breaks from his post-"Star Boy" so it works for me. "Baptized in Fear" is marginally darker, but not as inspired. Lyrically it's a little better than the "Cry For Me. "Open Hearts" gets more of a groove going. It might be the best song so far.  'Reflections Laughing" and "Enjoy the Show" feel like they run together. The voicemail narrative bridges these two, not surprised Future shows up. It's not his most inspired moment either. Then we get into some overproduced ballads. "Given Up on Me" is a little better than some of these attempts. 11 tracks into a 22-track album I'm just hoping I don't have to sit through another song as boring as "Given Up On Me"  

This hope is not given any more strength in "I Can't Wait to Get There" though it is better than the previous song. Playboi Carti does a better job than Future when it comes to his contribution to "Timeless". "Niagra Falls" is lyrically better than the bulk of the album if we are weighing this against what is consistent with his overall body of work. Perhaps to the point of being creatively redundant. He rides the line between romantic and misogynistic with enough subtly to not get canceled. I guess while we are on redundancy, "Take Me Back to LA" feels pretty phoned in. Sure the synth wave sound captures the retro feel they are going for, but the song itself is somewhat empty. 

Giorgio Moroder pretty much invented what we think of as disco. At 84 his creative tank is running on empty when it comes to "Big Sleep".  "Give Me Mercy" finds the hi-hat helping pick the pace up from getting mired into another ballad. Though no one is going to call this the best song on this album much less his career. The more minimalist approach used to arrange "Drive" fails to provide the needed backbone this song needs.  I was looking forward to hearing him give things another shot with Lana Del Rey as their collaborations were always at least decent, but they are both losing relevancy here.

"Red Terror" does not really work, as if feels like he just got desperate and agreed to sing over anything they there at him. He feels like he is trying to remember how to get back to a place he once worked on "Without Warning' but can't find direction. The beat that kicks in at the two-minute mark would have sufficed at one point in his career but goes only into all too familiar places with none of the edge he once held. The title track that closes the album is boring, but at least it's over. I'll round this down to a 7.5, it's a bloated mess, that could have been a great EP as there are 6 cool songs buried in this ballad soaked debacle. This album dropped with little buzz considering he was once a huge pop star everyone was into a few years ago, so I think this is why he has become less than memorable.One Canadian import we can do without.  

pst52