Hurry Up Tomorrow By The Weeknd | Album Review

Abel Tesfaye completes his album trilogy and career on an incredibly high note

Listen to Hurry Up Tomorrow: Apple Music | Spotify

Back in 2022, fresh off the release of Dawn FM, The Weeknd posed a question to his Twitter/X followers in a now-deleted post: “I wonder…Did you know you’re experiencing a new trilogy?”. Referring to the albums: After Hours, Dawn FM, and the then untitled third entry Hurry Up Tomorrow. The singer would remain tight-lipped about his upcoming album, dropping visual teasers last summer and performing in São Paulo and Australia, using his performances and a handful of singles to start this new era.

It should be noted that Hurry Up Tomorrow also signifies the end of Abel Tesfaye’s tenure as “The Weeknd”. After 14 years of chart-topping successes, The Canadian crooner is saying goodbye to the mysterious persona he introduced us to way back in 2010. Not to mention the release of a feature film based on this new album, slated to release May 16th. With that in mind, the expectations for Hurry Up Tomorrow are quite high.

Acting as the grand finale to his 2020s album trilogy and The Weeknd persona, Hurry Up Tomorrow is an operatic enigma of an album. Showcasing even more exploration of sounds than ever before, complete with arguably some of Abel’s best singing to date and thematic elements that are a fitting conclusion to the artist’s eccentric career.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is much more varied in production styles than previous albums, even more so than Dawn FM, whose sound was the closest thing to experimentation Abel had done until now. Abel mostly trades the glitzy radio pop he’s perfected in the past and offers up obscure styles that see him push his sonic capabilities. “Cry For Me” 's take on distorted house music gives a very aggressive nature to the song, before ending with a solid trap-influenced outro. The acoustic-laden “Reflections Laughing” echoes the guitars of “Rolling Stone” but with an anthemic tone with the help of choir-like vocals.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is also structured incredibly well. With more of the in-your-face, attention-grabbing songs in the first half of the album, and the atmospheric/cinema-quality tracks being the focus in the second half. I also need to mention the amount of transitions spread throughout various interludes and songs, it makes the entire album feel like one seamless experience from start to finish.

Longtime collaborators such as Oneohtrix Point Never, DaHeala, Mike Dean and Metro Boomin take center stage here. Each of their intricacies can be heard throughout like OPN’s glitchy electronics (“Opening Night”) or Dean’s heavy use of Moog synths (“Red Terror”). The biggest surprises however come from Metro Boomin and Giorgio Moroder. The sample-heavy “Given Up On Me”, is a 2-part banger that starts as a futuristic trap-heavy anthem, before slowing things down to a low-key piano ballad, flexing Metro’s production muscles. Giorgio on the other hand comes through with Scarface levels of drama with songs like “Big Sleep”. His influence can be felt throughout the album’s back half as Hurry Up Tomorrow draws to a close.

As a singer, Abel’s voice has never sounded better than on Hurry Up Tomorrow. His vocal runs towards the end of “Take Me Back To LA” add more emotional quality to an already intimate song. His falsetto matches perfectly with the retro R&B-inspired “I Can’t Wait To Get There”. There are even some minor callbacks to his Trilogy era like his deepened vocals on various songs, almost like one final return to his past self.

I also can’t forget to mention the handful of hidden guest features. We already know of Anitta and Playboi Carti on the previously released singles “São Paulo” and “Timeless” respectively. New guests come in the form of Travis Scott (“Reflections Laughing”), Future (“Enjoy The Show”, “Given Up On Me”) and Lana Del Rey (“The Abyss”). Thankfully none of these features steal the spotlight from Abel, nor is their inclusion meaningless. They all bring a bonus to each song, especially Lana whose vocals cap “The Abyss” in an angelic manner.

Lyrically, Hurry Up Tomorrow finishes the “After Hours” Trilogy with some mature storytelling. Abel explores existentialism and reality in the opener “Wake Me Up”, questioning if his demons are really chasing him or not. His anxieties take hold of him in “Baptized In Fear” and “Reflections Laughing”. Echoing his fears after losing his voice in 2022, he feels shame and guilt with lines like (“Figure in the corner laughing at me. Water fill my lungs, vision blurry.”). Questioning whether he should give up his Weeknd persona, or continue to please his fans.

He ponders the idea of death, whether it’s the death of love in “Cry For Me” and “Open Hearts”, or his physical death in “Enjoy The Show”. It’s eye-opening and quite honestly, depressing to hear Abel feel so defeated: (“I don’t wanna make it past thirty-four, and when the curtains call, I hope you mourn. But if you don’t, I hope you enjoy the fuckin’ show.”).

However, things take a turn significantly following “Take Me Back To LA” where Abel reminisces on his original aspirations of going to Cali, and his childhood growing up in Scarborough. From this point on the album becomes incredibly reflective, self-conscious even. He begs God for mercy in the aptly titled “Give Me Mercy”, forgiving him for his past (“Give me mercy like you do and forgive me like you do, hope that you see me.”). He makes his way towards “Tomorrow” on the song “Drive” and accepts his final fate on the album’s title track.

The sweeping ballad ends the album and signifies Abel walking into the light of Heaven, saying goodbye to The Weeknd for good. He yearns to be free from the pain and guilt he subjected himself to since 2010 (“I want heaven when I die, I wanna change. I want the pain no more, no more, no more.”) Yet the song’s dramatic finale ends up segwaying right back to his very first song, “High For This”. Perhaps alluding that The Weeknd may never truly die? That his persona will forever be reborn and die again? It’s an ambiguous way to end what is already a monumental album.

There are some minor parts to Hurry Up Tomorrow that don’t sit well with me. At a whopping 22 tracks, several songs do tend to overstay (and understay) their welcome quite a bit. Namely “Niagara Falls” and “Enjoy The Show” in particular. In the grand scheme of things though, they never took away from the sheer quality that The Weeknd possesses here. Hurry Up Tomorrow is greater than the sum of its parts, and quite honestly one of the best albums of this trilogy and his discography in my opinion.

I have nothing but great things to say about Hurry Up Tomorrow. This was an amazing listen from start to finish, and one of few 20+ track albums that managed to hold my attention throughout the entire run time. Production-wise, the album’s variation in styles shook things up and allowed the producers and Abel to push themselves sonically. The overall structure, features and singing were executed well. Meanwhile, the lyrics and themes felt fitting for what may be the last hurrah for The Weeknd.

With all that in mind, and despite some minor gripes with the track lengths, Hurry Up Tomorrow is nothing short of amazing as one complete package. Which is why I’m rating it a very strong 9.5 out of 10. I don’t think there was a better way for Abel to say goodbye to The Weeknd than this. It’s like everything he worked on was leading up to this cinematic and operatic finale. This final bow was very well worth the wait, and will surely go down as one of his best albums by far.

Final Rating: 9.5/10

Favourite Tracks: Wake Me Up, Cry For Me, Baptized In Fear, Open Hearts, Reflections Laughing, Given Up On Me, Take Me Back To LA, Give Me Mercy, The Abyss, Hurry Up Tomorrow.