The Weeknd -- Kiss Land
5/10
And this is where I got off The Weeknd train almost as soon as I boarded it.
The wily Canadian singer, no longer a mysterious figure shrouded in darkness, but just a man, shoots for the stars on his major label debut, 2013's Kiss Land. It's clear after just a few songs that The Weeknd, aka, Abel Tesfaye, is trying to find a persona here. His 2011 mixtapes laid out that dark, previously mentioned mysterious persona, but Tesfaye had dismantled that by the end of the free-to-download trilogy. A little bit of that bad boy, druggie, womanizing narcissist carries over, but he's also trying to mix in a new persona, "good guy popstar." Obviously, those two things don't fit.
Tesfaye's also trying to create a highbrow cinematic sound here, essentially evoking Ridley Scott and Vangelis by name in the closing, Blade Runner-quoting track, "Tears in the Rain." Truthfully, some of the widescreen stuff works, like the big, French assassin-evoking climax of "Professional," which again, might as well just namecheck Luc Besson and Éric Serra.
"The Town's" midsection keeps that cinematic edge going, and "Adaptation" not only ensures the first three tracks are named after films, but feel like they are soundtracking a major movie moment. Linking things together even more, at least in my mind, "Adaptation" samples The Police's urgent "Bring On the Night," and hey, who sung the closing song in The Professional, but Sting himself.
Honestly, if The Weeknd just went for this vibe over the entire album, Kiss Land would work.
"Love in the Sky" opens with drums very obviously inspired, and practically lifted from Kenji Kawai's soundtrack for 1995's Ghost in the Shell. The song again evokes some type of big, global, neo-noir 80's sci-fi film in its twang-bass bridge, with rain and lightning sound effects only making the point more obvious, nearly to the point of parody. Then "Belong to the World" samples Portishead, proving that Abel Tesfaye, up to this point in the album, is drawing his greatest inspiration from all of the stuff that was my favorite back when I was a senior in high school (and still pretty much my favorite now), though he was nine years old then. But this is also where the album starts to fall apart.
Honestly, if The Weeknd just went for this vibe over the entire album, Kiss Land would work.
"Love in the Sky" opens with drums very obviously inspired, and practically lifted from Kenji Kawai's soundtrack for 1995's Ghost in the Shell. The song again evokes some type of big, global, neo-noir 80's sci-fi film in its twang-bass bridge, with rain and lightning sound effects only making the point more obvious, nearly to the point of parody. Then "Belong to the World" samples Portishead, proving that Abel Tesfaye, up to this point in the album, is drawing his greatest inspiration from all of the stuff that was my favorite back when I was a senior in high school (and still pretty much my favorite now), though he was nine years old then. But this is also where the album starts to fall apart.
For starters, Tesfaye didn't even bother to ask Portishead if he could borrow the percussion from the band's "Machine Gun." After Portishead reacted angrily, Tesfaye said he had written them a letter, telling them they were an inspiration--no shit, Abel!. Up to this point, The Weeknd actually looked like he was going to be Portishead's natural successor. Ironically, though, it's "Belong to the World," the songs where's he literally samples Portishead, where Tesfaye firmly drops "The Next Portishead" title-holder for POPSTAR. "Belong to the World" brings in not one, but two extremely cheesy pop choruses (this mess sounds like nine songs crammed into one), where a now conscience-driven Tesfaye tells a woman he can't hurt her in the way he previous would because he has realized she "Belong(s) to the World." It's an incredibly lousy song. And that's about it for me and The Weeknd.
So next comes "Live For," where Tesfaye declares, with his buddy Drake, "This the shit that I live for/with the people I'd die for." When Drake appeared on The Weeknd's 2011 mixtape, Thursday, it felt like he was showing up because The Weeknd was so faded, he couldn't even finish his own song--a sort of brief lamp-turned-on-moment in the dark majesty of The Weeknd's original trilogy. Now Tesfaye and Drake are making a cheesy club song.
I wish I could say things get back on track with "Wanderlust," but it starts up sounding like a damn Paula Abdul song, and never really leaves that territory, though at least Tesfaye is really singing. I will say, though, at least the trilogy-era Tesfaye returns for Kiss Land's title track, once more inhabiting that terrifying and dangerous persona in a song where he says stuff like "You can meet me in the room where the kisses ain't free/You gotta pay with your body/I'm not really into kisses leading into nothing," "trying to finish all this potion/baby take your time/I'm trying to sip it till the morning," "the only thing you're taking is your clothes off," "My doctor told me stop/he gave me something to pop/and I mix it up with some adderalls and I wait to get to the top/and I mix it up with some alcohol and I pour it up in a shot," and "I don't know how to drive/I make my driver get high/but if he goes under that 110/best believe my driver get fired," which is why I started listening to this guy in the first place. It's just totally ridiculous, and makes me feel like such a better person than I actually am because I am not doing any of that stuff. But then he goes Popstar again.
So next comes "Live For," where Tesfaye declares, with his buddy Drake, "This the shit that I live for/with the people I'd die for." When Drake appeared on The Weeknd's 2011 mixtape, Thursday, it felt like he was showing up because The Weeknd was so faded, he couldn't even finish his own song--a sort of brief lamp-turned-on-moment in the dark majesty of The Weeknd's original trilogy. Now Tesfaye and Drake are making a cheesy club song.
I wish I could say things get back on track with "Wanderlust," but it starts up sounding like a damn Paula Abdul song, and never really leaves that territory, though at least Tesfaye is really singing. I will say, though, at least the trilogy-era Tesfaye returns for Kiss Land's title track, once more inhabiting that terrifying and dangerous persona in a song where he says stuff like "You can meet me in the room where the kisses ain't free/You gotta pay with your body/I'm not really into kisses leading into nothing," "trying to finish all this potion/baby take your time/I'm trying to sip it till the morning," "the only thing you're taking is your clothes off," "My doctor told me stop/he gave me something to pop/and I mix it up with some adderalls and I wait to get to the top/and I mix it up with some alcohol and I pour it up in a shot," and "I don't know how to drive/I make my driver get high/but if he goes under that 110/best believe my driver get fired," which is why I started listening to this guy in the first place. It's just totally ridiculous, and makes me feel like such a better person than I actually am because I am not doing any of that stuff. But then he goes Popstar again.
"Pretty" is gross and makes me want to stop listening to the guy. I greatly enjoy the ridiculousness of his over-the-top persona, but if you try to pair that persona with that of a caring, loving individual, it just makes the whole thing yucky.
Despite the epic, Blade Runner-quoting title of closer, "Tears in the Rain," the song finds positive, major-key, Popstar The Weeknd completely destroying any last vestiges of dark, scary, definitely never hosting The Super Bowl The Weeknd. As a result, the young Canadian, the son of Ethiopian immigrants, would soon become a household name. Good for him, if that's what he wanted. But I didn't want a pop artist. I wanted an artist. I've given every Weeknd album since this one a listen, but never bought another. From those three albums, I've only greatly enjoyed one song, After Hours' "Escape From LA," which I feel like gives a powerful, intriguing window into the direction Tesfaye could have headed. The song is dark and atmospheric like his mixtapes, but without that old, original, evil Weeknd persona. He's just absolutely himself in the song, a guy from Canada, admitting his own flaws, while commenting on the empty narcissism of Hollywood culture. It's got all of the sex and griminess of his old stuff without him having to put on an act (even if I love that act), and all of the atmosphere too. It leads me to believe that instead of embracing pop stardom, Tesfaye could have found an in-between, in the middle of the #1 popstar route he took, and the "get the children out of the room right now" darkness of his original material. Maybe he can still find that path, using "Escape from LA" as a blueprint. I don't know. But I hope so.
2013 XO/Republic
1. Professional 6:08
2. The Town 5:07
3. Adaptation 4:43
4. Love in the Sky 4:27
5. Belong to the World 5:07
6. Live For (featuring Drake) 3:44
7. Wanderlust 5:06
8. Kiss Land 7:35
9. Pretty 6:15
10. Tears in the Rain 7:24
Despite the epic, Blade Runner-quoting title of closer, "Tears in the Rain," the song finds positive, major-key, Popstar The Weeknd completely destroying any last vestiges of dark, scary, definitely never hosting The Super Bowl The Weeknd. As a result, the young Canadian, the son of Ethiopian immigrants, would soon become a household name. Good for him, if that's what he wanted. But I didn't want a pop artist. I wanted an artist. I've given every Weeknd album since this one a listen, but never bought another. From those three albums, I've only greatly enjoyed one song, After Hours' "Escape From LA," which I feel like gives a powerful, intriguing window into the direction Tesfaye could have headed. The song is dark and atmospheric like his mixtapes, but without that old, original, evil Weeknd persona. He's just absolutely himself in the song, a guy from Canada, admitting his own flaws, while commenting on the empty narcissism of Hollywood culture. It's got all of the sex and griminess of his old stuff without him having to put on an act (even if I love that act), and all of the atmosphere too. It leads me to believe that instead of embracing pop stardom, Tesfaye could have found an in-between, in the middle of the #1 popstar route he took, and the "get the children out of the room right now" darkness of his original material. Maybe he can still find that path, using "Escape from LA" as a blueprint. I don't know. But I hope so.
2013 XO/Republic
1. Professional 6:08
2. The Town 5:07
3. Adaptation 4:43
4. Love in the Sky 4:27
5. Belong to the World 5:07
6. Live For (featuring Drake) 3:44
7. Wanderlust 5:06
8. Kiss Land 7:35
9. Pretty 6:15
10. Tears in the Rain 7:24
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