I usually enjoy sexually expressive music, being a huge fan of artists like Marvin Gaye and Prince. Curious with all the hype surrounding The Weeknd and his upcoming album, I decided to look into some of his previous work. Though I wasn't very impressed, it made me look forward to hearing Beauty Behind The Madness.
The album has a fair share of catchy moments, and also a decent amount of skippable tracks. Tell Your Friends, produced by Kanye West, stands out as the album's brightest jewel with it's hooking vocal melody and light production, slightly reminiscent of Kanye's Bound 2. The Michael Jackson-esque Can't Feel My Face is another highlight.
When it comes to lyrics, The Weeknd has done the best he can to make sure that the album never feels pleasant, not even for a moment. His rambling on about his obsession with drugs, money and loveless sex maintains a dark tone till the end, and he warns us about this in the first song, Real Life singing "Tell 'em this boy wasn't made for loving".
This theme just didn't work for me. When I play a sexual R&B album, I expect it to be passionate, something which gets me in the mood, even if it is dark. But Beauty Behind the Madness gave me a bitter, obsessive and misogynistic perspective instead. Come on, there are a million better things to do with sex than obsess over it - enjoy it, for instance?
Favorite songs: Tell Your Friends, Can't Feel My Face
Rating: 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment