Okay, so I'm off for the Easter Holidays at the moment and I have literally not stopped listening to The Weeknd for the past two days. The Toronto based singer has such a mellowing voice with a velvet texture similar to the style of Ne-Yo yet he brings an edge with electronic beats that ripple below the lyrics. Focusing on the first album / mixtape that was released called House Of Balloons, the lyrics are mainly refer to topics such as love, lust, and drugs, for example.
The best song, in my opinion, is High For This. The echoing beat in the background of the melodic voice which eventually progresses into a subtley concealed drum and bass accompaniment is just fab. The Weeknd just has this way of producing such simplistic melodies and accompaniments that somehow become such an addictive listen.
However, I also love numerous songs by The Weeknd due to the down right sexiness of them. Uhuh. Wicked Games is a perfect example of this; aside from the gorgeous texture of his voice, the lyrics sample lines such as "let me motherfucking love you" and "take you down another level, get you dancing with the devil". This as well as the low, pulsating beat creates such a seductive atmosphere. This guy is literally making me fall in love with him just by hearing his music.
Cœur de Pirate also did a
cover of this song which was superb.
Personally, I find The Weeknd's tracks to be completely enchanting. A perfect example of this is displayed in the song
Coming Down. Referring to 'coming down' from the high supplied by drugs, the singer's beautiful falsetto voice sets the atmosphere with the help of wolf howls echoing in the background. Although a little creepy, this is perfect to represent the state of mind that the character of the song is in.
So all in all, an all round fantastic artist. The Weeknd has mastered the art of taking a beat that would generally be labelled as hip-hop / RnB and applied it to lyrics with a diverse melody to create enchanting and compelling music. You can probably expect his other two albums / mixtapes to be making an appearance at some stage soon too.
♥mollie
p.s. I've got into tumblr again (after reclaiming it from my hacker who attempted to flog free starbucks vouchers!) so come say hi, if you would be ever so kind > dirtyspecs < Merci Buckets :)
