Review Summary: Abel's beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy.
Few former indie darlings have struck out harder on their first major-label release than The Weeknd did with 2013's Kiss Land . The Canadian-bred R&B crooner traded the minimalist atmosphere and raw emotion that drove his trio of widely-acclaimed self-released (House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence)2011 mixtapes for a lifeless, one-dimensional sound that stripped away nearly all of his finest attributes as an artist. The Weeknd makes up for the sins of Kiss Land on his second LP Beauty Behind the Madness, which sees him bringing back the identity he established at the beginning of his career while simultaneously embracing his new standing at the top of the pop music food chain.
It was clear from hearing the singles "Can't Feel My Face", "Often" and "The Hills" that Beauty Behind the Madness was going to mark The Weeknd's return to experimenting with a bunch of different styles over the course of an album. What made his mixtapes so noteworthy was the sense of danger that was present in his music. You never knew where the next song was going stylistically and it made his music completely exhilarating to listen to. While the material on Beauty Behind the Madness is much more accessible on the whole than his early work, he still manages to explore a wide array of styles over the course of the record. The album's 14 tracks features forays into everything from guitar-driven ballads ("Shameless", "Dark Times") to upbeat '80s-influenced pop that is strikingly reminiscent of Bad-era Michael Jackson ("In the Night", the aforementioned "Can't Feel My Face") to traditional R&B slow jams that are bound to score many future sex scenes in cheesy romance movies ("As You Are", "Angel"). While some of these tracks miss the mark ("Angel", "Dark Times", "Losers"), it's great to see The Weeknd stray from the samey formula that plagued Kiss Land and go back to taking risks in his music again.
While there's a number of gems among the album's pop-inspired tracks, The Weeknd is at his best when he's making hazy, gloomy alternative R&B. The busy soundscapes featuring dissonant synthesizers, bizarre samples and powerful drum machine fills manage to bring out the best in his striking falsetto vocals. Tracks like the aforementioned "The Hills" and "Tell Your Friends" feature a rich atmosphere and stirring hooks that get under your skin and stick with you longer after you've finished listening to them.
However, the album's finest moment by far is "Prisoner", a duet with fellow downtempo pop star Lana Del Rey. The duo's natural chemistry oozes out of the speakers as they trade verses about how their respective addictions with drugs and fame have destroyed their ability to fall in love. "Prisoner" is a hypnotic, heartbreaking track that only the likes of The Weeknd and Del Rey could offer up and is hopefully just the start of a lengthy musical partnership between the king and queen of melancholy pop.
Beauty Behind the Madness shows that The Weeknd can produce a pop album with mainstream appeal without sacrificing the unconventional song structures and grit that defined his early work. Even at its lowest points, it's a refreshingly bold record that refuses to adhere to a majority of pop's well-established genre norms. If he can solve his problems with consistency and not dilute his projects with bad guest spots (Ed Sheeran's appearance on "Dark Times" is seriously awful), The Weeknd's stunning vocal talent and willingness to incorporate a cornucopia of different styles into his music should allow him to dominate the world of pop music for years to come.
