The Weeknd is a radioactive fallout on ‘After Hours’
And the toxic waste glows tremendously.
Heartbreak. It can be completely debilitating. We may ache for our exes as if they died; mourning the love deeply. Things that once brought happiness like songs, phrases and places turn into painful memories stabbing like daggers. An intense emptiness can swallow you, in time turning into resentment. Out of resentment, you try to fill that cavity with short-lived ecstasies such as alcohol, drugs, sex, etc. until it’s realized just how short lived they are.
We all know (who’ve been there) the happiness is fleeting and the come down is … hard to put it nicely. As brutal as that sounds though, the spiral, or rather the meltdown doesn’t truly become toxic until you begin manipulation and mind games for your selfish gain.
In a usual scenario, after failed facades of escape and false lovers attempting to fill the empty void, the person allows the heartbreak to run it’s course; accepting that the coals are slow burning … but out of the fire you are born anew — ready to move on with your life and restart.
Yeah … ‘After Hours’ is not that.
In the words of Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (The Weeknd), himself, this isn’t “day-time music”; there’s no happy ending to this story. He’s not OK, and he doesn’t get OK as the album progresses. Honestly that candid, matter-of-fact nature of this album is its most glorious aspect.
I want to use Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” for sake of comparison here.
I would argue “Blonde” is more on the lighthearted side as a serenade of heartbreak; even with it’s low-dwelling moments the LP expires in a more so … emotionally healthy way. I would describe “Futura Free” as a serene exit, a measure of closer is given.
Yeah … ‘After Hours’ is not that.
The toxic waste is seeping out of Abel alike to a radioactive meltdown, and over the span of 14 tracks we witness The Weeknd’s fallout.
If nothing else, Abel is self-aware at this point in life. As the emptiness consumes him, showcased with “Alone Again,” he comes to the realization that his life is a mess and it’s largely because of the lifestyle he leads. He acknowledges it with “Escape From LA,” jesting “This place will be the end of me,” but he doesn’t do much to change his reality. Besides suppressing his emotions with drugs and his music, Abel actually does the opposite of help the situation and spirals a little further as we witness him reach the resentment stage with “Heartless.”
“Low life for life ’cause I’m heartless”
Basically the fast, Hollywood lifestyle that ruined The Weeknd’s relationship in the first place is what he turns to once more to numb the fact at hand. In a Vegas nosedive, zooted on enough drugs to tip-toe overdose, Abel’s pride won’t let him slow the train down now.
Speaking of this Vegas kamikaze, following the album or more specifically the three track story of “Heartless,” “Faith” and “Blinding Lights,” it seems Abel finds himself on the verge of overdosing after going too hard. On the topic of “Blinding Lights,” it’s a genius juxtaposition of the casinos and city lights quite literally drowning Las Vegas in constant light, and the flashing of ambulance lights “blinding” him as he drifts in and out of consciousness mentioned on the outro of “Faith.”
This woosy, spacey production and addition of sirens in the outro’s background momentarily remind the listener of the somber reality at hand — The Weeknd is self-destructing. As I said previously, we are witnessing a meltdown.
Moving on to “Save Your Tears,” The Weeknd recesses to the third stage of his toxic fallout: mind games and manipulation.
“You could’ve asked me why I broke your heart”
Observing the second verse of the track, Abel refrains, “You could’ve asked me why I broke your heart,” toying that their demise wasn’t completely his to blame. He mentions how happy she looks without him but regardless he pleads for her to take him back claiming “I want to stay,” all the while having zero empathy for her feelings, telling her to save her tears.
He decays even further with “Repeat After Me” (I have to say this track is the definition of toxic, but it SLAPS). The attempt at essentially brainwashing his ex-lover that moving on is pointless and it’ll never be love because he’ll always be singed into the back of her mind is … cold-blooded to say the least. This level of manipulation and mind games alike is the theme of this album and it spills even further into the title track “After Hours.”
Borderline desperate, The Weeknd admits that he “turned into” the man he needed to be to get her, but he’s given up the act trying anything, saying anything to have her back.
“Where are you now when I need you most?”
As the track progresses to the second half, when pleading seems to not be working, Abel begins to antagonize his ex; attempting to guilt trip her into taking him back. Painting the picture of how his life is post-breakup, he digs, “Where are you now when I need you most?”. He again apologizes and exclaims how things will be different saying, “This time I won’t break your heart” and that this time he’ll treat her better. It seems that from tracks “Save Your Tears, to ‘Repeat After Me” and lastly “After Hours,” The Weeknd has become progressively frantic as he feels his ex slipping away no matter how many mind games he plays.
After the emptiness and resentment passed and The Weeknd’s attempts to manipulate his way back into his ex’s life have failed, “Until I Bleed Out” marks the fourth and final stage of his meltdown — paralyzing despair.
“I keep telling myself I don’t need it”
When it comes to heartbreak, we all reach this point whether taking the “healthy” route or reducing ourselves to a toxic mess — case in point The Weeknd. The facts that the romance is dead and nothing can bring it back, drugs can’t numb the pain and that there’s no shortcut past these feelings of regret and heartache all eventually hit you like a freight train.
I have to point out Abel has a phenomenal performance on this track as you can hear the pain in his voice. He frustratingly yelps that he wants to cut her out of his mind, and recites, “I keep telling myself I don’t need it”. The double entendre of bleeding his ex out of his memories, and also literally bleeding out by way of suicide are as perfect of descriptions of heartbreak as you can get.
The track’s lyrics, cracking of his voice as he sings, the feeling the track evokes — it’s pure emotion. “After Hours” is a complete rollercoaster of pure emotion and The Weeknd did an incredible job displaying this wide spectrum of feeling. As I mentioned in the onset of this review, Abel is not OK and he doesn't get OK throughout the course of this album. That is the beauty of “After Hours.” It’s naked, it’s a curtain pullback of what heartbreak truly is and how the process can, if not most often does (circumstances differ obviously), play out.
If you can’t tell, I loved the album and as far as 2020 goes, “After Hours” has my album of the year vote. Here’s my final thoughts:
The Weeknd “After Hours”: 9/10
