‘‘I felt I had to change who I was." Beauty Behind the Madness is the end result of a year’s worth of molting old habits, a creative upheaval that has begun to teleport him from the margins right to pop’s center.
Four years ago, a young Toronto native surfaced in the music scene, turning heads with the release of the nine-track LP, House of Balloons. The project was murky. It was comfortably numb. It was powerful, Michael Jackson-channeling and curious. Fans were intrigued by his contented indifference and the narcotic-induced darkness he lived in. Who was this figure? Where had he come from? Why were his enigmatic instrumentals and shredding falsetto so addictive? His disassociation and distancing became attractive, and his lack of emergence kept us on the edge. Everyone wanted more of the arcane persona called The Weeknd.
Now 25, Abel Tesfaye is less than one week away from the highly anticipated release of his second full-length album with major record label Republic. Apparent from his lead singles “Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills,” Tesfaye’s approach to the project differed previous works Kiss Land (2013) and the mixtape compilation, Trilogy (2012). When head of urban A&R at Republic, Wendy Goldstein, asked him if he wanted to be the biggest in the world, Tesfaye responded, “I absolutely [do]. If I’m gonna be the biggest in the world, I need a handful of songs like that.”
And thus the creative upheaval began. Goldstein became his offensive coordinator, organizing strategies that would transform him into the pop icon he wanted to be. First, she orchestrated a duet record he would preform alongside Ariana Grande at the A.M.A.s, “Love Me Harder.” The song was co-written by swedish producer and songwriting legend, Max Martin, who’s credited with the mentorship and guidance behind the careers of Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson, among others. The two of them worked alongside for the majority of the project, many times clashing, but ultimately reaching compromises. “I hate major chords. I hate structure. I want this song to be eight minutes long,” he’d tell his producers. Still, Martin and his team worked tirelessly with Tesfaye in order to make his music more accessible while still remaining The Weeknd.
Even the album title hints at the compromise between commercial appeal and original sound on Beauty Behind the Madness. Tracks like “Can’t Feel My Face” and “Losers” are obvious radio pushes, with upbeat drum kits instigating a subconscious head-bobbing trance. “Acquainted” and “Often” demonstrate the pop-inflected/true-Weeknd hybrids, lyrically rooted in his original sound with more accessible chord progressions, and collaborations with Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey further prove his hunger to prove the biggest pop star in the world.
‘‘These kids, you know, they don’t have a Michael Jackson,” Tesfaye explains. “They don’t have a Prince. They don’t have a Whitney. Who else is there? Who else can really do it at this point?’’ There’s a throne for the taking and stage that needs to be set. With the release of his album on Thursday, can The Weeknd stake him claim as the biggest pop star in the world?
