The Weeknd

Dawn FM (Silver Vinyl)

Labels / Brands:
Republic Records
Genre:
Pop, Soul / R&B
Style:
Contemporary R&B

Not available

Specification
Description
Track-list

Condition	Sealed
Manufacturer	France
Format	2xLP, Translucent Silver Vinyl, Limited Edition, Gatefold Sleeve
Date of release	2022
Barcode	602445401369

The Weeknd has shown himself to be a singular artist with a vision since the release of his last album “After Hours”. From his appearance in “Uncut Gems”, the chart performance of singles such as “Blinding Lights” and his critically lauded Superbowl performance, Abel Tesfaye’s gone from strength to strength. “Dawn FM” sees him rise even further to incorporate a more conceptual sweep to his work. With the help of shop favourite Oneohtrix Point Never (AKA Daniel Lopatin), the album is as cinematic as it is poptastic, with interludes by Jim Carrey and Quincy Jones to add to the “War of the Worlds” vibes. Lead single “Take My Breath” is a particular highlight, present here in an extended mix to do just as the title suggests. He may be the biggest pop star in the world, but that doesn’t mean The Weeknd’s not trying to push pop just that little bit further.

He resurfaces with a conceptual sequel designed as a broadcast heard by a motorist stuck in a purgatorial tunnel. The primary collaborators are "Blinding Lights" co-producers Max Martin and Oscar Holter, plus fellow After Hours cohort Daniel Lopatin, whose airwaves-themed 2020 LP Magic Oneohtrix Point Never was executive produced by Tesfaye. Instead of scrambled voices like those heard on the OPN album, Dawn FM features recurrent announcements from Jim Carrey as a serene and faintly creepy character, or maybe himself, intonating end-of-life entertainment and counsel. The other unlikely appearances -- Quincy Jones with a spoken autobiographical interlude, Beach Boy Bruce Johnston somewhere in the cocksure "how it's going" outlier "Here We Go...Again" -- are ostentatious. In the main, this is a space for Tesfaye to fully indulge his frantic romantic side as his co-conspirators whip up fluorescent throwback Euro-pop with muscle and nuance. Tesfaye's almost fathomless vocal facility elevates even the most rudimentary expressions of co-dependency, despair, regret, and obsession, and he helps it all go down easier with station ID jingles and an amusingly hyped-up ad for "a compelling work of science fiction" called (the) "After Life." The set peaks early with a sequence of dejected post-disco jams that writhe, percolate, and chug. Most of these songs surpass the bulk of Daft Punk's similarly backward-gazing Random Access Memories, projecting the same lust for life with underlying existential doom as Italo disco nuggets such as Ryan Paris' "Dolce Vita." Toward the end of that first-half stretch, Tesfaye reaffirms his R&B roots and affinity for Michael Jackson with a cut built from Alicia Myers' 1981 gospel boogie classic "I Want to Thank You." After that, it slows down and stretches out a bit to varying effect, dipping into Japanese city pop for the bittersweet and remorseful "Out of Time" and edging ever so achingly toward Latin freestyle with "Don't Break My Heart." Just before Carrey's epilogue, Tesfaye and company pick up the pace with "Less Than Zero." Rather than use the title as a prompt to sink back into detailing debauchery, Tesfaye makes the song this album's "Scared to Live," a sentimental ballad that's hard to resist.

- Andy Kellman - allmusic.com