Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, has seen his share of mainfame since his last album, Kiss Land, was released in 2013. Before then The Weeknd was considered to be Drake’s associate, being featured on many of his top hits including “Trust Issues” and “The Zone”. Now, as Beauty Behind the Madness makes its way to listeners’ ears around the world, Tesfaye seems to have hit mainhard and fast.
The R&B artist had his single “Earned It” featured on the motion picture Fifty Shades of Grey giving you a sense of just the type of dark, lustful, soul music The Weeknd has begun to form himself into.
But it isn’t “Earned It” off this album that has garnered all the attention from mainlisteners. The hit single “Can’t Feel My Face” just recently peaked as the #1 song in the U.S., a disco-themed dance beat with a chorus easily sung along to. Tesfaye seems to stray away from the sex aspect of R&B and embody the drug feature having “I can’t feel my face when I’m with you,” be a parody of a women making him feel like he has consumed too much cocaine.
Tesfaye goes from both melody filled drug songs to aspired love songs, but these love songs are more on the dark side of love. The opening line on the album is “Tell ’em this boy wasn’t made for lovin’,” which tells you that these love songs are missing the biggest aspect of it: emotion. All of his “love” songs on the album are not about him falling in love, rather, they are about him not wanting to be in a serious relationship.
In “Shameless” the chorus begins with “I don’t wanna hurt you but you live for the pain. I’m not tryna say it but it’s what you became.” Abel goes on to say how, even despite his unwillingness to commit to a relationship, he will always be there for the girl when she needs him, shamelessly. This is a new vibe Tesfaye consistently expresses on Beauty Behind the Madness. How it is not him who is the bearer of pain but the women he sings about.
The Weeknd finds himself collaborating with both Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey on the record.
“Dark Times” with Ed Sheeran continues to push Tesfaye’s lack of emotion on relationships. Both Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd find themselves singing the pre-chorus of “This ain’t the right time for you to fall in love with me.” Abel sings here about his “dark times” where he will fall back into his old habit of drugs and alcohol and sleeping with women he doesn’t actually love.
In the song “Prisoner” with Lana Del Rey, Tesfaye opens by saying “You bring love to my lonely life, honestly. It’s hard for me to look in your eyes. When, I say that I would be nothing without your love, I feel the rush and it’s amazing.” When you first hear this line you think it's actually a love song about falling in love, but as the pre-chorus commences you come to find out it isn’t that at all. “Maybe I've been always destined to end up in this place. I don't mean to come off selfish, but I want it all. Love will always be a lesson, let's get out of its way." Tesfaye has always bragged to fans and listeners on how gifted he is. He even predicted in one of his earlier songs, “Rolling Stone”, that he would be famous and he believes he was “destined” to be where he is. But Abel also knows a thing or two about love and how dangerous it can be. Be that loving a woman or loving his fame. In the chorus of the song both artist sing “I'm addicted to a life that's so empty and cold.” The life of stardom and fame can come costly and both The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey, a woman just as dark and apathetic as him, express that immensely in “Prisoner”.
Beauty Behind the Madness portrays Abel Tesfaye as a selfish man who can’t love. Either be it because of his old habits like he expresses in “Dark Times” or because of his career like he explains in “Prisoner”. Tesfaye is warning everybody that even though these songs are love songs, The Weeknd is just a mainR&B artist with a cold heart who continues to battle his old addictions and his ambitions.
But even behind all that, there is still some beauty to be found.
Album Rating: 4/5
