Over the past five years, Abel Tesfaye, more commonly known as The Weeknd, has released music ranging from dark R&B to stereotypical radio pop songs. His latest album, Starboy, marked his third splash into the ears of the mainstream.
Featuring heavy hitters like Future, Lana Del Rey and Kendrick Lamar, Starboy aims to solidify The Weeknd’s place in the world of pop music. Instead of affirming his dominance in this genre, Starboy reveals the Toronto native going through an identity crisis.
As the album jumps from track to track, The Weeknd tries and fails to combine the dark sounds from his Trilogy days and ready-for-radio pop instrumentals. While the Canadian star has always discussed his excessive lifestyle of partying, success and sex, he doesn’t show much lyrical progression on Starboy.
Tesfaye seems to be stuck in aesthetic limbo.
Tracks like “Party Monster,” “All I Know” and “Attention” show a sense of yearning for the image that pushed The Weeknd to stardom, while songs like “Rockin’” and “Love to Lay” seem to be manufactured solely to become radio hits a couple of months after the album’s release.
There is no common theme throughout the project. While the transitions from song to song are smooth, they don’t make much sense for the direction of the album. A hodgepodge of styles mixed with an excessively long track list make Starboy more of a chore to listen to with each revisit.
However, the album does have its merits. The title track opens the album on a strong note. With the help of Daft Punk on the opening and closing tracks, The Weeknd wraps the jumbled mess with songs that could have served as inspiration for the entire album.
“False Alarm” and “Sidewalks” jump out as two of the strongest moments of the project. “False Alarm” features a frantic chorus and a booming but spacey instrumental, making it one of the most unique songs on Starboy. “Sidewalks” combines auto-tuned vocals from Tesfaye, a dextrous verse from Kendrick Lamar and electric guitar riffs to make a groovy mid-tempo tune.
“Sidewalks” marks another shift in the tone for the album. While elements of the Trilogy days are still present, modern pop seems to vanish as Michael Jackson-esque, 80s inspired R&B becomes prevalent.
Most of the songs begin to blend together and cease to offer any significant differences in tone or tempo. For all intents and purposes, tracks 10 to 17 could be combined into a single half-hour song. The lack of diversity in the second half of the album interrupts whatever flow it had in the first half.
The Weeknd is undeniably talented, but it seems as if he is stuck between wanting his time in the spotlight and wanting to return to his mysterious life prior to his rise to fame. Both sides don’t have to be completely separate. Nevertheless, The Weeknd’s attempt to combine the two failed, resulting in a project that had potential but was ultimately confused about its identity.
Grade: C+
