‘After Hours’: The Weeknd’s Tenaciously Night Bound Record

"Amongst glamour and sexy, extremely sexy harmonies, the Weeknd delivers a door to his post-breakup portal."

---

Solemn and uncertainty fill the air as the Weeknd’s vocals open up a world of sadistic and passive-aggressive moods amongst the melancholic turmoil that urged him to create his new record After Hours, and that exists in today’s society.

With the quarantine building and the looming pandemic being nowhere near its end, After Hours ignites a storm of down-in-the-dumps and in-the-feels qualities. The Weeknd’s usual sad-boy style appeals to the audience once-again as his joyless R&B lothario mentality rises to its highest occasion.

Amongst glamour and sexy, extremely sexy harmonies, the Weeknd delivers a door to his post-breakup portal.

---

An album described by The Rolling Stone’s Jon Dolan as “The Ballad of Bella Hadid,” the later-described “romantic desolation” can be felt all over the record in the most genuine of ways.

“Hardest To Love” generates a retro-Nineties bass-kicker beat intertwined with Max Martin’s production skills. This broken-hearted tune of defeat features a sense of deflated self-admiration amidst an ever-enticing groove. Although, on “Scared To Live,” the Weeknd dials it down with breathtaking and open-ending vocals that soar over this operatic laced R&B tune that recalls such a common theme during the world’s struggles today.

Among the hits already gracing the charts, the clear-driven, and jerkish “Heartless” tears into the Weeknd’s soul. While the endlessly grooving and everyone-loving “Blinding Lights” graciously tears up the charts, with Martin’s assistance again, this Eighties-esque almost reminiscent flair of Depeche Mode carries an infectious glimmer throughout it’s air-filling, absorbing energy.

---

After Hours, compared to the 2016 LP Starboy or 2018 release of My Dear Melancholy, provides casual-Weeknd melodies and institutes a sleek feel in the pop realm. With “In Your Eyes,” this smooth sax-filled, could have been common Eighties repertoire tune jumps into a world of romantic techno-pop and showcases the Weeknd’s stellar vocals intertwined with shiny harmonies.

But its Weeknd’s “Faith” and “Snowchild” that alters the scene with the former referencing Prince’s legend Purple Rain and the latter showing a home side to the beloved wreckless R&B star. “Snowchild” discusses the Weeknd’s hometown of Toronto and refers to drugs as if it’s his autobiography or a self-proclaiming tune to his misfortunes and path to stardom.

In reality, “Save Your Tears” may just be the record’s ultimate tune; as a relatable chorus falls in the consumer’s lap, the possibilities become never-ending with flashy beats and synthesized harmonies. The Weeknd outdoes himself with this luster-filled tune that may prove to be the next big hit.

---

Although, the greatest strength to the new album proves to be the Weeknd’s ability to wind down. “After Hours,” the title and second-to-last track happens to be the most hypnotic song too. With an effervescent and repetitive backbone, this three-part tune hauntingly appears for its beginning yet fascinates in the middle as the catchy chorus delivers raw lyrics, but is cut short in lieu of the final terrain where the Weeknd’s vocals may be at their most vulnerable.

Yet, After Hours doesn’t stop there in fact, the final track “Until I Bleed Out” abruptly ends just as it begins to move somewhere. Then, the repeat occurs, and “Alone Again” ultimately begins again.

The Weeknd offers a collection of soothing, enamoring pop mixed into lethargic R&B that catapults into a tale of a break-up, lustful admiration, self-absorption, and colic mentality whilst begging for forgiveness and questioning the inner workings of disparity.