Abel Tesfaye’s 10 year musical journey, since the start of his recording career on YouTube in 2010, has been a very successful run for the multi award winning artist. From his first two mixtapes “house of balloons” and “echoes of Silence” to his five major studio albums following, Abel’s personal record have been displaying the development of the popstar’s character. Abel’s discography has massively helped in ushering the dark RnB/ Hip-hop genre into the mainstream. His records usually have a recurring theme of darkness and sadness that he presents in his personal songs about past heartbreaks and stories with partners, and his drug abuse problem. Apart from his 2016 record “Starboy” that took a more “Pop” approach to fit with his theme of self-awareness that he has become a mainstream pop sensation.
With his newest record since his 2018 project “My Dear Melancholy”, “After Hours” Brings a new chapter and development in Tesfaye’s life and career. coming out with a new edgy 80s Look in the cinematic teaser, the artist promises a change in his style as is with his persona. His three singles along with the cinematic trailers and short films promise a synth-wave themed 80s/ RnB mash-up. Sonically, the album definitely stands out to the rest of his discography with wide and heavy synth sounds inspired by the 80s’ new wave genre. On the other hand, lyrically, the album lives up to the persona Abel has been building up with his music in the past 10 years; a self-loathing villain popstar that has seen it all and now is trying to escape his majorly successful lifestyle.
In the record, Abel shares his story with fame and how it’s affecting his personality and turning him into more of a villain instead of helping him through his problems that he shared earlier in his career in his past projects. But this record seems to be a conclusion to this chapter in Abel’s life, in tracks like “Snowchild” and “Escape From LA”, the artist talks about his reasons for his now announced departure from living in Los Angeles. He described that living there has brought out the worst in him with how he is surrounded by people that promote his negative habits.
Setting the mood with his first track, “Alone Again”. From the song’s title, Abel seems to be commenting on his statues with his supermodel ex-girlfriend Bella Hadid. The track starts with very dark and heavily filtered bass arpeggios, alongside with Abel’s signature wet reverb vocals signals harmonizing with his vocals. the first third of the album on the other hand seem to drift apart this theme we were introduced to with the singles and the first track; “Too Late”, the second song on the album, starts with sounding like the typical Abel (especially “the beauty behind the madness” days) until the song takes an unexpected turn with the chorus. The song takes a synth-pop/ edm turn that personally feels out of place with the album.
The production on the album seems very diverse and almost too diverse. The common ground seems to be the synth sound being inspired by the 80s, but the drum beats shift across several genres that are not usually paired with one another on the same record. Some pop dance tracks like, “Hardest to Love”, “save your tears” and “in your eyes” which all have a very glimmering wound where Abel’s voice really shines in the track. Although sounding like upbeat tracks. The lyrics for these tracks are rather sad; similar to what you would expect from him.
The Record has a few slower paced tracks that resemble his other work that complement the theme. In “repeat after me”, Kevin Parker’s production creates this massive space that Abel beautifully fills with his voice in this interlude.
As for the Album’s singles, and in my opinion, the tracks that carry the whole record, they are easily one of The Weeknd’s enjoyable tracks. His vocal performance in “Blinding Lights” are very powerful and expressive. We see Abel resemble the Late popstar everyone compares him with, Michael Jackson. The track sounds like it came from a different era; in a great way. The mixture of genres in his singles collection for the album are very coherently enjoyable and refreshing as much as they are different.
Since the artist’s transition to the pop genre after his massive success in 2015 with “My Dear Melancholy”, his Records seem to have taken a turn to cater for the wider mainstream audience as his reach became huge with his tracks dominating radio stations. But out of all of his recent projects, “After Hours” personally feels the most enjoyable out of the bunch. Mainly due to the originality and uniqueness of the project being a refreshing breather from today’s crowded market filled with edm/ pop and other genres that are now considered overplayed.
Overall the artists’ most experimental project had a huge success, holding the umber 1 billboard spot for more than a month now since its release. It is safe to say that the reception to his 80s-dance themed record was very warmly welcomed by the public and has solidified its place as one of the more successful experimental projects in the recent years.
Drumroll 