Album Review: Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd

The Weeknd, on the other hand, has refreshingly avoided the whole thing, instead cultivating a shadowy, mysterious persona that's preoccupied with sex and drugs while sharing almost nothing about who he is aside from his penchant for self-destruction. When he sings about someone who can "show me how to love" on "Blinding Lights" (by far the most-streamed song on Spotify), it doesn't even occur to me to wonder who he might be singing about, since his songs live in a seedy fantasy world rather than reality. Which brings us to Hurry Up Tomorrow -- apparently the final Weeknd album, and the first one obviously rooted in his real life.

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If this is The Weeknd's last album, it's a shame – but it’s perhaps for the best Is this the end of The Weeknd? Probably not, but if Hurry Up Tomorrow is indeed Abel Tesfaye's swansong, it's an underwhelming conclusion to a career that has redefined contemporary pop. The third part of a loose trilogy that began with 2020's After Hours, home to the most streamed song in Spotify's history, let alone the other streaming channels, and continued with 2022's Dawn FM, this latest effort ultimately feels like a weary sigh rather than a triumphant bow-out. The most obvious problem is one that plagues many major pop releases in the streaming era: excess.

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In contrast to Taylor Swift's diaristic approach to pop songcraft, Abel Tesfaye has kept himself, via his persona as the Weeknd, at arm's length in an era where musicians insist on frankness, and so much music is tied up in meta-narratives. But with his sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, it seems as if Tesfaye has grown tired of the mask. The final installment in a trilogy, following 2020's After Hours and 2022's Dawn FM, the album attempts to send off pop's most enigmatic figure in ambitiously cinematic fashion.

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Is this The Weeknd's final chapter? The lead-in to 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' has found Abel Tesfaye in fatalistic mood, contemplating the end of his long-running, record-breaking project. Billed as the final part in a trilogy that opened with 'After Hours' and continued with 'Dawn FM' , it's a blockbuster in every sense. 22 tracks - two is a number containing receptive energy in the i-ching - there's a huge sense of unity, and of completion here.

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