Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s fifth album, Dawn FM released January 7th. The album features Lil’ Wayne, Tyler, The Creator, Quincey Jones, and Jim Carrey.
Abel took a new direction to the album, it is narrated by Jim Carrey as the disc jockey. The album acts as its own radio station with 80s beats and sounds.
The story of this album takes place right after his previous one, After Hours. The character from that story dies and is waiting in a long line to be put in either heaven or hell. As he waits, Jim Carrey puts music on to pass the time.
The difference from his first mixtapes and albums are very noticeable. Abel is experimenting with new sounds and is getting more comfortable with himself. There is the definitive inspiration from the “king of pop” Michael Jackson. Listening his music it is impossible to not move at least your foot to the song. You can not just put these songs into a playlist and press shuffle. These songs have to be played together. Appreciate those seamless transitions that Abel made to keep the flow as of it were a real radio station.
Though these songs are not as story driven as After Hours, there is still a lot of thought and meaning behind the lyrics and direction of the tracks.
This may not be his best album ever, but there is a small chance that there will be a better album this year being that the album has already surpassed half a billion streams as of January 18.