Review Summary: The latest from the alternative r&b artist finds him flirting with sounds that he can't fully commit to.
I’ve been obsessed with music reviews ever since middle school. I remember searching Metacritic endlessly for scores on all my favorite albums and ones that I was planning to listen to. But then and even now, I still wonder how many times a reviewer actually listens to an album before rating it. Personally, I have a three-step process; but for the first time in a long time, I’ve encountered an LP that I couldn’t take the distance. That album is The Weeknd’s Starboy.
Phase 1 - Shower Listen: This listen always has me at my calmest, so naturally I was mostly receptive. I thought to myself, “There’s some bangers on here, a couple of duds, but still a good piece of Pop.”
Phase 2 - Surfing the Web: Without the soothing, hot water distraction of Phase 1, my ears were left unprotected from this LP's superficial subject matter and cringe inducing transitions. Only 5 tracks into my second phase, I had to say "*** it"- I put my laptop to the side and skipped to Phase 3, hoping to quickly end my suffering.
Phase 3 - Hardcore Listen: I did abide by this phase’s rule of putting all distractions to the side, but reading along to the lyrics, as I usually do, was on a level of masochism I had yet to achieve. I came to the conclusion that it was in the album’s best interest if I didn’t know what Tesfaye was singing about 100% of the time.
Like the geezer I am, my introduction to the alternative r&b artist was through the overwhelmingly popular, "The Hills Have Eyes." I actually enjoyed the track at the time, feeling it brought something new to the scene with its strangely creepy but sexy vibe. I thought to myself, "This song would be perfect to grind to at a Halloween Party." Sadly, I cannot provide you with any quirky commentary regarding Starboy- only pain. Starboy feels like the product of an artist that is bored with his sound, singing on these tracks with the intensity of a person reading from index cards. This complete lack of passion stands in stark contrast to the electro-pop numbers, "Rockin'" and "False Alarm," which erupt with an ass-shaking energy that is sorely missing from the rest of the album. But why flirt with these sounds when you could commit the whole album conceptually to it? Maybe, (A) He wants to stick with a winning formula, or (B) He's lazy.
The topics Tesfaye covers on Starboy are staples of the rap and r&b genre- ripping on haters, flexing your fame, missing a girl, being wronged by a woman. There's nothing wrong with this being well worn territory, but the problem is that he does nothing to creatively convey his ideas on these topics. In fact, sometimes he doesn't offer any ideas at all. On "Attention," he sings about a girl that's acting up because she's looking for attention...and that's really it. We don't hear anything detailing their relationship, experiences they've shared, or even characteristics of this woman he's complaining about. It's just a song for song's sake. Kill. Me. Now.
Oh, let's not forget the gutter trash transitions- It's as if they just made sure to put the big single, "Starboy," at the beginning of the album, "Stargirl Interlude" in the middle, and said "*** it" from there. I'm sure there's a couple of decent tracks on here I missed, but it's impossible to remain receptive during a listen when the track listing is so haphazardly slapped together- YES, the songs' orientation to each other affects the album's pacing. And YES, this plays a crucial role in what the listener is experiencing. ***.
You know what? In the spirit of the lack of craftsmanship of Starboy, I’m just going to end this review. Nope, nothing clever or thought provoking here. It’s just an ending to end things.
-Andrew
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Source: http://www.blownspeakers.net/music/the-weeknd-starboy2
