Album Review: The Weeknd Pimps Out In After Hours

After Hours feels like The Weeknd’s attempt to become 80’s style pimp in Jupiter. Sonically, it is trippy and gritty, cosmic and dirty, beautiful and heartbreaking: spanning genres to feel cinematic in its rhythmic reeling. In total, it feels like the most “The Weeknd “have ever been himself.

The Weekend has embraced his theatrical desires to create an album for those that loved his Uncut Gems performance and the ones, like myself, that still believe The Trilogy was the DOPEST he has ver sounded. Do I love The Weeknd? Yes. Do I stan all his records? Yes. Is The Trilogy me favorite? Yes. Those once free mixtapes were moody, experimental, gutting, and creatively genius, which are still qualities he carries. Yet, After Hours feels like a full circle moment for The Weeknd.

The Weeknd – Heartless (Official Video)

All his style changes, somehow, landed him back into his classic groove, of which you cannot help but feel like his star-making turn in Uncut Gems influenced his return to his even darker roots. Yet, he returns with panache and pizzazz; with a bravado that says, “Bitch, better have my money!” From short films to imaging, it is hard not see visually experience this album. It sounds like the uncut video of Blinding Lights. You follow The Weeknd as he snorts half of Las Vegas, falls for a stunning hooker who lost her starry dreams under The Strip lights, and let his smooth, crooning voice bring humanity to the seediest characters that live only at night.

The Weeknd – Blinding Lights

Part of why fans LOVE The Weekend is because he does bring beauty to the madness. He plays with darkness, and uses his higher notes like beacons of light to the vampiric tendencies of toxic relationships. In essence, for The Weeknd, the only thing more drainable from a body than blood … is love. Thus, you fall for his narrative style and embrace that The Weeknd is like an ever-changing character/ demagogic symbol; the minute you feel close to understanding him, he becomes another chaotic entity of love. For More Information On The Weeknd And After Hours Click Here.