Abel Tesfaye gives his sordid, heartbroken pop-star persona a long, opulent finale: He’s going out on top by hitting rock bottom. The Weeknd is not a subtle experience. He sings about erotic asphyxiation and doing face-numbing amounts of drugs; he smothers his face in bandages until you can only see his eyes. He plays a caricature of himself in Uncut Gems and for years after he clung onto “The Character,” as Abel Tesfaye called it, speaking in third person for interviews. And so it did not come with a shock when he rolled out Hurry Up Tomorrow, the album he’s claimed is his last, with billboards that showcased teasers about the album, and interviews where Tesfaye had stated that he wanted to ‘kill’ his pop-star persona.
He makes that death thuddingly literal on his sixth record, detailing the twitch of his toes as he drowns in his bath, underscoring his pledge to overdose with sound effects of sloshing liquids and rattling pills. Seconds into the album, he starts taking stock of his legacy, before the track springs into the sound of “Thriller” rising from the grave. The true horror in any Weeknd song is the sense that something nefarious is happening just out of frame: the pill pushed into a palm, the moan behind a locked door, the threat of running out of time. But Hurry Up Tomorrow leaves no mystery or suspense. We know the stakes from the start: These are his final lines.
The result is an opulent, elegant and occasionally exasperating farewell. This is The Weeknd’s most expensive-sounding album that’s also narrowly focused. Even as he swerves from Brazilian funk to rapturous ballads to incandescent synth-pop, he keeps returning to one night from 2022, when he lost his voice mid-song during a Los Angeles concert and had to cancel the show. You cannot get more than a few songs through this twenty-two track album without The Weeknd tugging you back to that night, in clunky asides about his voice cracking while shouting about how he couldn’t sing.
Hurry Up Tomorrow shows The Weeknd’s versatility, oscillating between the murky, muddy soundscape that defined his first Trilogy and the gleaming disco-flecked pop that has buoyed his last few releases. He stuffs the album with surprises: We get both the gloriously sludgy “Reflections Laughing” with Travis Scott’s pitched-down vocals echoing through the void, and the neon buzz when Justice crashes into “Wake Me Up.” But the Album achieves real drama when entropy kicks in: When Lana Del Rey’s vocal ricochet and reverberate at the end of “The Abyss” when the frictive interlude “Until We’re Skin and Bones” hurtles into warp speed when “Sao Paulo” spins out into a dancefloor panic attack. Hurry Up Tomorrow always seems like it’s ready to lurch out of your grasp. The vertigo is the thrill.
The album was teased for over a year, with its final release date being January 31, 2025. The album features twenty-two songs, with an eighty-four minute playing time. Before the album’s final and long-awaited release, there were many hit singles that were publicized such as, “Dancing in the Flames,” “São Paulo,” featuring Annita, and “Timeless” featuring Playboi Carti. Other nameable features on the album include Travis Scott, Future, Lana Del Rey, and Giorgio Moroder. The album also brings new chart topping hits such as “Cry for Me” and “Take Me Back to LA.” As an OG XO fan, this album was worth the painstaking wait, and is the final chapter in The Weeknd’s legacy, completing a full circle. Hurry Up Tomorrow has a similar feel to his last album, Dawn FM, and his very first album, Trilogy. Listening to this album made me feel depressed that the “Character” that Tesfaye had created has now been killed off, as he had transformed the pop music industry over his decade of rule.
The first party banger on the album, “Cry For Me” opens up with daunting synth beats almost similar to the Brazilian funk sampled in “Sao Paulo.” The background beats also have an altered voice that fades into Tesfaye’s normal voice. The song itself is about The Weeknd hoping that his female love interest cries for him and about him every night, just like he does for her, even though he is ashamed in doing so. This song is a parallel between his second most popular song, “Die for You,” from his most successful album “Starboy,” released in 2018. “Cry for Me” creates a haunting image about a well-established man, a successful man crying over a woman, a sensation and feeling that is new to him. He drowns himself in his “whiskey tears” when thinking about her, and how much she does for him without begging or a fight. The vocals later in the song change in depth, with some parts being lower than others, creating a smooth wave from character to character. Overall, the song is an excellent choice in starting a long-anticipated album, a banger that releases all of The Weeknd’s suppressed emotions, a tactic that is often used when starting to heal or to bring closure to oneself.
The second, and by far the most innovative song on the album, is yet another party banger. “São Paulo” mixes traditional club music with the upbeat and loveable Brazilian funk genre. Featuring Anitta, mainly in the background vocals, the song is enticing to listen to, and gives the perfect aura of modern club music, minus the annoying DJ interludes. The song has strong synth beats in the background, further enhancing both of the artist’s voices. The lyrics are also extremely catchy, perfectly matching the rhythm of the song. Within the background, you can hear Anitta speaking in Portuguese, and again those lyrics are extremely catchy even with their absurd meaning. The song itself is about The Weeknd meeting a girl at a club, and him describing her as they keep meeting. Nevertheless, this song was one of my favorites of the teased singles before the true album was released. The catchy lyrics and the harmonization between both of the artists made this song enticing and enjoyable to listen to, making me believe that this song is a true banger though and through.
The most popular song on the album with a surprise feature with Playboi Carti, “Timeless” is truly timeless, opening with The Weeknd’s signature background vocals screaming “XO.” The composition of the song is truly catchy, with its classic fast-paced rap beats, and the opening vocals by Playboi Carti. Carti has many voice changes throughout the song, enhancing the different characters that he portrays. The song also makes several references to James Bond, with the numbers 007 being brought up several times throughout the song. The term “XO” is mentioned several times in the song. XO is The Weeknd’s brand name, and also the title that his fans hold. Essentially, the song is talking about the lifestyle that his fans live, scheming others, partying and being confident to the point that it oozes out of their pores. The Weeknd also talks about how he has known that he has been this way since he was a kid, and how it is too late for him to change now, which is something that he despises. Overall, “Timeless” was my favorite song out of the whole album, not just because of its popularity, but about how it makes you feel while you listen to it, and how a song can make you define yourself, or help you create a persona that you portray to others.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is the last and final album from The Weeknd. The overall rating that I would give this album is a 9.5/10, five points being deducted because of how long the album took to come out, and the constant teasers that were deployed by Abel. This album is very much in my comfort zone, with The Weeknd being one of my main artists that I listen to. Even though this era of music is coming to a saddened close, The Weeknd will forever live on as one of the greatest artists that has defined, and shaped this era of music.
