Choco
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Post by Choco on Jan 9, 2022 13:45:40 GMT -5
After a couple listens I don't love the album. Nothing really stood out that much either but I can see three decent single choices ("Sacrifice") was the correct choice.
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Active Aggressive
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Post by Active Aggressive on Jan 9, 2022 14:54:29 GMT -5
If, after House of Balloons dropped, someone told me that The Weeknd was going to dive fully into this Cocaine 80's x sci-fi vibe, I would definitely have thought that person was insane, but...here we are. It's also his most blatantly inspired Michael Jackson record. Instead of just one song, he is going full Jacko.
1. Is There Someone Else/Starry Eyes 2. Less Than Zero 3. Take My Breath 4. Best Friends 5. Sacrifice 6. Out Of Time (Bruno vibes) 7. How Do I Make You Love Me 8. Here We Go Again 9. Don't Break My Heart 10. I Heard You're Married 11. Gasoline (those verses are ATROCIOUS.)
The interludes are what they are. I like Jim Carrey's voice but I was waiting for him to break character and turn into The Mask, Fire Marshall Bill, or Wanda several times, so he wound up being distracting.
I can't imagine listening to this whole thing sober. Currently my least favorite album of his. Ditch Ohnopointtrixnever or whoever. I will say that this album at least SOUNDS interesting, for the most part, but again, it sounds like an acid or shroom trip, rather than an actual album. Not surprised in the LEAST that critics are eating this up though.
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Enigma.
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Post by Enigma. on Jan 9, 2022 15:01:50 GMT -5
Well put, the album indeed SOUNDS good.
But Ed Sheeran is struggling with that The Boys of Summer/Young Turks ripoff (Overpass Graffiti) so wouldn't be surprised if The Weeknd faced the same fate with the singles.
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dovahduck
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Kavinsky finally dropped! :)
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Post by dovahduck on Jan 9, 2022 15:37:25 GMT -5
Lyric videos for all the songs out now:
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Carlitoz
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Post by Carlitoz on Jan 9, 2022 19:49:38 GMT -5
I’m more of a casual Weeknd fan. As such I’m confused about the marketing strategy of the release of the album. The little I knew mid last year was that they kept playing the successful singles of the previous album. Then came Take My Breath. Never felt a FIRST SINGLE of a NEW ALBUM buzz. I was left wondering where it is from. As I read, it didn’t make it big in the charts. Then in the last months I see him with Post Malone, ROSALIA and one or perhaps two more other collaborations. Did they have any big impact in the charts at all?? Then now the album is released with no hot huge single on the radio. Not getting it.
Sacrifice didn’t do much on first listen. Watching the video made me appreciate it way more. Very 80s the video in my opinion. Why didn’t they let the single impact some and then release the album?
I’m sure they just don’t want to follow any traditional idea of album release. It will be interesting to see how things go.
I’ve been playing the album and especially the first songs I am enjoying. But it leaves me wondering if I better just go listen directly to Michael Jackson, Depeche Mode and other new wave acts I grew up listening to instead of this album.
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spiritboy
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Post by spiritboy on Jan 10, 2022 8:14:10 GMT -5
Well put, the album indeed SOUNDS good. But Ed Sheeran is struggling with that The Boys of Summer/Young Turks ripoff (Overpass Graffiti) so wouldn't be surprised if The Weeknd faced the same fate with the singles. That's not an official single though, just a promo single just like 911 was. And Ed's first two singles are global smash hits unlike any song off The Dawn. Very wrong comparison here. I get you hate Ed but try to be more objective.
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Enigma.
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Post by Enigma. on Jan 10, 2022 8:36:23 GMT -5
I guess it depend on the market. It spent 9 weeks on A list on BBC Radio 1 for instance.
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musicspy
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Post by musicspy on Jan 10, 2022 9:41:21 GMT -5
It really depends on the market. Take My Breath has been a pretty sizeable hit in my country, arguably bigger than Shivers. But i guess he is talking about the US
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Choco
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Post by Choco on Jan 10, 2022 9:49:23 GMT -5
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Active Aggressive
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Post by Active Aggressive on Jan 10, 2022 12:10:11 GMT -5
The short song lengths (overall) work in this album's favor as well as the cohesion. Also, it sounds pristine in Atmos on headphones. I still find it to be a...weird album, but his best produced so I guess I take back what I said about Ohnopointwhatever?
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#LisaRinna
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Post by #LisaRinna on Jan 10, 2022 12:16:32 GMT -5
If, after House of Balloons dropped, someone told me that The Weeknd was going to dive fully into this Cocaine 80's x sci-fi vibe, I would definitely have thought that person was insane, but...here we are. It's also his most blatantly inspired Michael Jackson record. Instead of just one song, he is going full Jacko. 1. Is There Someone Else/Starry Eyes 2. Less Than Zero 3. Take My Breath 4. Best Friends 5. Sacrifice 6. Out Of Time (Bruno vibes) 7. How Do I Make You Love Me 8. Here We Go Again 9. Don't Break My Heart 10. I Heard You're Married 11. Gasoline (those verses are ATROCIOUS.) The interludes are what they are. I like Jim Carrey's voice but I was waiting for him to break character and turn into The Mask, Fire Marshall Bill, or Wanda several times, so he wound up being distracting. I can't imagine listening to this whole thing sober. Currently my least favorite album of his. Ditch Ohnopointtrixnever or whoever. I will say that this album at least SOUNDS interesting, for the most part, but again, it sounds like an acid or shroom trip, rather than an actual album. Not surprised in the LEAST that critics are eating this up though. Chile we need to talk about that last place ranking for "Gasoline" and "Sacrifice" before some of the other bops, but agree on everything else! #taste
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#LisaRinna
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Post by #LisaRinna on Jan 10, 2022 12:17:27 GMT -5
YUCK! #dysmal I guess the gerls are still too busy crying over Adull.
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dovahduck
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Kavinsky finally dropped! :)
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Post by dovahduck on Jan 10, 2022 15:09:44 GMT -5
New album closer than we think too?
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born
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Post by born on Jan 10, 2022 15:18:30 GMT -5
Okay but this is shaping up to be a great trilogy. I wonder if After Life is the final part.
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Au$tin
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Post by Au$tin on Jan 10, 2022 16:16:36 GMT -5
I'm actually perplexed by the critical reception this is getting because it sounds like just a bunch of After Hours b-sides that could've stayed on the cutting room floor to no loss for anyone. Outside of "Take My Breath," which I've never been super into but liked well enough, there isn't anything here I really cared much for. That being said, there isn't anything bad per se, just kind of "been there before, done that better" for him. After checking it out, I was met with a resounding "meh." I'm honestly kind of over him doing this 80s disco/pop/dance inspired stuff. I'm ready for him to move on to something else. But apparently this is only part two of a trilogy? Damn
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bat1990
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Post by bat1990 on Jan 10, 2022 16:44:01 GMT -5
everybody trying to be like T-Swift's release schedule without the fanbase to support it
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2022 18:50:06 GMT -5
This is getting his best reviews to date according to Metacritic (89; universal acclaim).
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Glove Slap
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Post by Glove Slap on Jan 10, 2022 19:37:56 GMT -5
This sounds like a really expensive mixtape. Pretty much everything here he has done before and better, or was done better by another artist already. From a songwriting standpoint, this is much weaker than his previous 3 albums, and some of the vocals are questionable. It flows well though and has a stronger start than After Hours, but it never reaches the high points of that.
I'll keep spinning this to see if something really sticks, but this is his first release where I didn't really get an urge to go back to listen to select tracks after the initial play of the whole album.
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dovahduck
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Kavinsky finally dropped! :)
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Post by dovahduck on Jan 10, 2022 20:18:06 GMT -5
"I Heard You're Married" is no longer being sent to rhythmic radio as single. They even took down its lyric video for some reason.
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atg
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Post by atg on Jan 10, 2022 20:51:25 GMT -5
everybody trying to be like T-Swift's release schedule without the fanbase to support it Abel’s 81 Million vs Taylor’s 57 Million monthly Spotify listeners. Yes TS will always have sales on her side but we can’t deny that Abel would still do numbers with anything he releases. Look at the streams of his recent featured track record it still does numbers. Dawn FM still has 5 songs in the top 10 he’s still doing amazing on streaming.
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atg
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Post by atg on Jan 10, 2022 20:54:26 GMT -5
"I Heard You're Married" is no longer being sent to rhythmic radio as single. They even took down its lyric video for some reason. Probably a good idea in the long run. Out of Time and Is There Someone Else are stronger contenders for the next single after Sacrifice. They both were the only tracks on the album that went up on Spotify despite it losing streams just slower compared to the rest of the tracks.
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dovahduck
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Kavinsky finally dropped! :)
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Post by dovahduck on Jan 10, 2022 21:08:05 GMT -5
"I Heard You're Married" is no longer being sent to rhythmic radio as single. They even took down its lyric video for some reason. Probably a good idea in the long run. Out of Time and Is There Someone Else are stronger contenders for the next single after Sacrifice. They both were the only tracks on the album that went up on Spotify despite it losing streams just slower compared to the rest of the tracks. Yeah it's for the best that its release got cancelled. It helps make sure that they avoid that dual post-album singles strategy that they did with 'Starboy'.
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Soundcl🕤ck
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Post by Soundcl🕤ck on Jan 10, 2022 21:17:57 GMT -5
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dovahduck
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Kavinsky finally dropped! :)
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Post by dovahduck on Jan 10, 2022 21:51:53 GMT -5
Glad that my favorite song from the album is getting a video!
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Soundcl🕤ck
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Post by Soundcl🕤ck on Jan 10, 2022 22:07:36 GMT -5
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B-Boy
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Post by B-Boy on Jan 12, 2022 9:46:53 GMT -5
I actually enjoy the album. I like the transitions between tracks 3-8, which happen to be my favorites. “Take My Breath” sounds so much better here than as a stand-alone single. My other favorite songs are “Don’t Break My Heart” and “I Heard You Were Married”.
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suzcruz7
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Post by suzcruz7 on Jan 12, 2022 21:00:55 GMT -5
A very positive review from Anthony Fantano.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Jan 13, 2022 1:23:37 GMT -5
He’s been tweeting up a storm all night.
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Enigma.
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Post by Enigma. on Jan 13, 2022 2:45:03 GMT -5
I don't get the LOVE by the critics tbh.. Maybe it's the aftermath of After Hours or sth (that the critics ranked it higher than they actually reviewed it) and they feel that they should reward The Weeknd now.
I would still rank it 3/5, can't see myself revisiting it in 6 months, especially if there's another album coming soon.
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Choco
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Post by Choco on Jan 13, 2022 10:38:18 GMT -5
3/5 feels right imo as well. I've given it a handful of spins and still haven't fallen in love with any track.
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