Review Summary: As dark and moody as it is accessible.
Like it or not, Beauty Behind the Madness is one of those albums that you can't escape. If you venture out into public at all, chances are you have heard at least one song off this album. Canada's Abel Tesfaye walks a fine line on this album. He has constructed an album that is rich in emotion and atmosphere, all while remaining accessible enough for him to experience commercial success.
Many songs often start off slow and soft. "Losers" and "Tell Your Friends" are complete with pianos and other assorted strings over slow drum beats. "Losers" evolves into a fast and catchy pop tune, complete with synthesizers, horns, and a feature spot from Labrinth. "Tell Your Friends" remains a slow ballad throughout while The Weekend takes us through a story about his recent success, while also addressing his notoriety as a guy that lives life hard and fast, complete with sex and drugs. Sex and drugs are two of the most common lyrical themes throughout the album. The standout track "Often" finds the listener hearing The Weekend explaining that he is a "young god" in his city where he is introducing a female counterpart to his world that is filled with excessive cocaine use and sex with multiple partners. All of this is told over a moody beat complete with thunderous bass.
The monstrous hit "The Hills" takes a similar lyrical theme. Abel expresses that he does not love the female that he is addressing, and is only interested in sex, preferably while under the influence. The song is complete with a catchy hook that is sure to stick in your head and an overall impressive and versatile vocal performance from Abel.
The Weekend tends to take a break from all of the meaningless sex and drugs in order to express his love to a certain female. One of the best tracks on the album, "Shameless," finds Abel telling us that you are never going to find a lover quite like him. The song builds its mood with a soft acoustic guitar and understated percussion. Towards the end, the song features an excellent, reverb soaked guitar solo. "As You Are" is another love ballad that has a more pop-driven feel thanks to the use of synthesizers and a drum machine.
Even at the album's most upbeat, there is still a layer of moodiness and lyrics rich in drug abuse. "I Can't Feel My Face" is a Michael Jackson inspired pop track complimented with an extremely groovy bass line and a much louder and higher pitched vocal performance from Abel. The sound on the surface sounds upbeat and happy, a classic party tune. Looking a little further into the lyrics, we can see that The Weekend is not talking about a female, instead he is personifying his addiction to cocaine.
The Weekend has a unique talent to merge dark and edgy lyrical themes over extremely catchy song structures and instrumentation. The songs are often bleak and moody, yet they remain exciting to the listener. Beauty Behind the Madness is the album that helped Abel's career absolutely explode, and it is easy to understand why. While many songs tend to have the same lyrical themes, Abel's vocal talent combined with smooth production throughout help to alleviate any sense of deja vu.
