With the release of Hurry Up Tomorrow, Abel Tesafaye is closing the final chapter in his career as The Weeknd. Now that it’s all said and done, it’s undeniable that the superstar has put together one of the most prolific pop careers in recent memory. Fans have known for a long time that this album would mark the ending of Tesafaye’s time as The Weeknd, but I’m not sure any of them could have predicted just how good this final act would be.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is The Weeknd’s eleventh studio album and the third and final act of his trilogy including 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Dawn FM. It is a masterclass in constructing a pop album, delivering everything you could want from The Weeknd one last time.
It would not be an album by The Weeknd without tracks like “São Paulo” and “Niagara Falls” that embody the toxic loverboy that The Weeknd built his career on. Thankfully they’re imbued with the more spacious and deeply infectious production of his later work, showcasing that his evolution as an artist sonically allows for these lyrical themes to feel fresh.
A few standouts are the opening track “Wake Me Up” and “Give Me Mercy.” They each have a richness to their instrumentation, with the former doing so from a distinctly pop-centric lens. The thick bass and dazzling synths fuze together perfectly, creating one of the album’s most elaborate yet most approachable tracks. On “Give Me Mercy,” slicing percussion contrasts the airy synths that lay the foundation for the track perfectly, allowing Tesafaye to dance through the space of the track in a way that only his voice could.
What stands out about this album on a larger scale is its artistic intentionality. There are clever nods to his previous work, like the unbelievably catchy “Take Me Back To LA” serving as a reflection of “Escape From LA” on After Hours. There is also the brilliant tie-in to his first project that closes out the album, as the end of the final track “Hurry Up Tomorrow” blends perfectly into “High For This,” the opening track on his first album House Of Balloons.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is a full thought and a perfect full circle moment for The Weeknd to hang his hat on. In a time of endless deluxe albums, it is a complete story that needs no musical addendum.
However, with one phase of his career ending, another begins. On May 16, a film inspired by the album will hit theaters. The film follows a musician plagued by insomnia as he is pulled into an odyssey with a stranger, starring Tesafaye along with Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan. It is a psychological thriller that rounds out Tesafaye’s artistic vision that closed out his time as The Weeknd.
With an album, a feature film and a massive stadium tour, there are more ways to immerse yourselves in a project by The Weeknd than ever before. Tickets for the show and exclusive vinyl and box sets of the album are available here, and Hurry Up Tomorrow is available everywhere now!
So what are you still doing here? Hurry up and listen to make sure you take time to say a meaningful goodbye to one of music’s most iconic figures if you have not already.
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