Welcome back to “Perfect Pitch,” a series where members of the Belmont Vision’s senior staff review the latest releases in music and look for the next big thing.
This week, we'll be exploring The Weeknd’s latest album, "Hurry Up Tomorrow."
Since the release of "After Hours" in 2020, Abel Tesfaye, better know by his stage name
“The Weeknd,” has been crafting a story that would span five years, three albums, and culminate in his final project "Hurry Up Tomorrow."
Drawing inspiration from Dante Alighieri's famous 14th-century poem "The Divine Comedy," the trilogy of albums "After Hours," "Dawn FM" and "Hurry Up Tomorrow" follows the three distinct sections of the afterlife that Dante, or Tesfaye in this case, traveled through on their journey from Hell to Paradise.
This release comes as bittersweet as this project is said to be the last one Tesfaye will create under the name The Weeknd.
While he plans to continue, music, stylistic, and artistic motives are bound to change as he steps away from the persona of nightlife royalty for a more personal one that reflects the man behind the music.
Zach Watkins – Arts and Entertainment Editor
Overall Rating: 5/10
General Thoughts:
While not the strongest album on The Weeknd’s discography, this production-centric piece of work shows off aspects of artistry that The Weeknd has never seen. Between the continuation of a narrative three albums long and a new experimental sound The Weeknd swings in his final chapter.
Though the bat might not connect, the attempt at a grand finale is always respected.
Favorite Song: “São Paulo”
Least Favorite Song: “The Abyss” ( feat. Lana Del Rey)
Favorite Lyric: “Death is nothin’ at all, it does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room”
Does this album feel like a successful closing chapter to The Weeknd’s music career?
While the album thematically conveys a sense of finality as the weekend reconciles with the last decade and a half of stardom and its lasting effect on celebrities' psyche, this album leaves a bit to be desired after his successful career in the music industry. In his attempt to be experimental in his final chapter an air of inconsistency formed with the rest of his career which is not the way I would want to go out as an artist.
Do you feel that the extended metaphor of his last three albums was effective in its storytelling?
The extended metaphor he creates throughout the trilogy of albums is a refreshing take on a story that has been used in different mediums across the board. While not every song of every album has a direct tie to the source material, it is the aesthetic he uses that ties the albums together rather than a narrative retelling like others have tried before.
Ria Skyer – Senior Videographer
Overall Rating: 6/10
General Thoughts:
The Weeknd’s face in the album cover is how it feels to comprehend this record. While thematically set in a paradise, The Weeknd doesn’t seem that he’s going to heaven or that he’s prepared for where he’s going.
“Without a Warning” mentions that he’s stuck in a cycle and struggling to find the next day. He tussles with this idea until the final track, which conveniently shares a title with the album. It takes The Weeknd 75 minutes to come to this conclusion, and it isn’t clear that he is oscillating in these ideas until that last five.
The Weeknd’s never had an issue creating a sonic landscape, which he continues to thrive on in “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” but its theming is not as sustinct as it was with his previous record, “Dawn FM.” This may have caused a turbulent landing for his supposed trilogy.
Favorite Song: “The Abyss” (feat. Lana Del Rey)
Thank you for giving us a moment for Lana; she sounds luxurious.
Least Favorite Song: The Interludes that could’ve been added to the end of their proceeding track (“I Can’t F***ing Sing”, “Until We’re Skin And Bones.”)
Favorite Lyric: “Take me back to a time when my blood never tasted like wine,” from “Take Me Back To LA”.
Does this album feel like a successful closing chapter to The Weeknd’s music career?
A persona of this sort mostly lives on through how an artist is promoted and not as directly into the music. Even if an artist labels that their work is presented by an alter ego, part of the human could always slip through. He can choose to now speak through Abel, but Abel was always speaking through The Weeknd; some listeners may always perceive as The Weeknd. That doesn’t delegitimize his view on his persona, but it may be more difficult for an audience to shift how he markets himself after being The Weeknd for so long.
Do you feel that the extended metaphor of his last three albums was effective in its storytelling?
The idea of a trilogy of albums feel more like an organization method The Weeknd used to collect his thoughts and simmer a message through. A connection to Dante’s “Inferno,” let alone a throughline between his last three records is very slim and hard to detect without an immense attention to detail, which a casual fan may miss.
Nick Rampe – Senior Sports Writer
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
General Thoughts: The Weeknd’s final album, while enjoyable, overstays its welcome. There’s a good album in its 1 hour, 24-minute runtime. There’s probably a great one if you cut it down to 45 minutes.
Favorite Song: “I Can’t Wait to Get There”
Least Favorite Song: “Give Me Mercy”
Favorite Lyric: “My enemies hate it because I own my soul.”
Does this album feel like a successful closing chapter to The Weeknd’s music career?
While I was a bit disappointed in the album, it undoubtedly stays on theme and is still a solid closing to the trilogy and the Weeknd moniker.
Do you feel that the extended metaphor of his last three albums was effective in its storytelling?
The concept of having three albums combine to create a Divine Comedy-esque epic is brilliant, and it was executed wonderfully by The Weeknd. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” completes one of the best musical trilogies ever made.
Nolan Russell– Senior Arts Writer
Overall Rating: 5/10
General thoughts:
In the name of honesty, I have to preface this review by saying I’ve never been the biggest fan of The Weeknd. I find his vocals to be grating and the way he sings about women to be concerning to say the least. However, when taking this album at face value it is not bad. I think musically speaking it is alright, but nothing revolutionary. I’ve always been a fan of his instrumentals and ended up focusing on the synths driving this album and feeling entertained. A frustrating choice he made was to blend most of the songs to make the album feel continuous, something that has worked for many albums before like on Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” and the B-side of The Beatle’s “Abbey Road”.
However, doing so was to the album’s detriment in this instance as the songs never stood out on their own enough to justify this choice. This left the album feeling overstuffed and as if it was seven songs longer than it needed to be.
Favorite Song: “Wake Me Up”
Least Favorite Song: “Drive”
Favorite Lyric: “Call me by the old familiar name”
Does this album feel like a successful closing chapter to The Weeknd’s music career?
Themes of rebirth permeated this album, especially in the last three tracks as The Weeknd shed his stage name and embraced his real name, Abel Tesfaye. While this album was obviously written to be the last album released under the name, The Weeknd, it’s not a momentous ending. The concept is cool, I’ll give it that, but the execution is lackluster sonically. On a more interesting note, Tesfaye transitions the last song of the album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” into his first song on his first album, “High For This” leaving The Weeknd persona in a never-ending loop, while Tesfaye moves on.
Do you feel that the extended metaphor of his last three albums was effective in its storytelling?
The previous two albums by The Weeknd have been speculated to be a part of a trilogy inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, with “After Hours” and “Dawn FM” representing the “Inferno” and “Purgatory” parts of the epic respectively. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” supposedly represents the “Paradiso” section, which is meant to represent paradise, perhaps in the form of self-acceptance. However, this is just a fan theory and I’m hesitant to give more credit to Tesfaye than necessary. Regardless of if this was intentional the theory works well enough as The Weeknd finds self-acceptance through casting out his former ways, specifically in songs like “Mercy” and “Red Terror”.
Braden Simmons - Managing Editor
Overall Rating: 7/10
General Thoughts:
Having more of something doesn’t necessarily make it better. The Weeknd in this 22-song album really seems to showcase the style that people have come to love from him. However, off an initial listen there aren’t really any songs that stand out, they tend to all showcase the same synthetic beats and hallowing vocals that a normal Weeknd song is known for.
I would’ve liked to have seen some more variety from someone with such a varied catalogue of songs and styles in both “After Hours” and “Starboy.” I think overall the songs still carried the normal style of a Weeknd song just will less lyric variation. It still makes for a fun listen or for good background music if its something a listener is looking for.
Favorite Song: “Take Me Back to LA”
Least Favorite Song: “Wake Me Up”
Favorite Lyric: “My love could fill a sea. But now I can’t even feel the breeze.”
Does this album feel like a successful closing chapter to The Weeknd’s music career?
I suppose in a sense this was a good way to close the door on who we have come to know as The Weeknd. It certainly wasn’t quite the homerun that most artists would like to end on but conceptually it certainly carried an air of reverence for the style that has gotten The Weeknd to this point in his career. Because of the length of the album though it appeared as though The Weeknd was kind of sticking his metaphorical feet in the ground on actually saying goodbye.
Do you feel that the extended metaphor of his last three albums was effective in its storytelling?
I think that the concept and theory is rather interesting. Creating a trilogy that mirrors the three parts of Dante’s Inferno is conceptually something I didn’t think about until researching this album and the other’s that The Weeknd has put out most recently. It certainly carries the air of “heaven” with the amount of lofty and airy vocals used throughout the album. Though this still doesn’t excuse the length of this album, and the kind of repetitive sound found throughout the album, the concept certainly gives new perspective to the album.
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