You Think You Know Me Show Mtv
By Athena Serrano
The Weeknd, whose given name is Abel Tesfaye, knows the feeling of being stuck in limbo during a 2-yr pandemic, and of remaining in the dark for far too long. On his new fifth studio album Dawn FM, he steps boldly into the lite.
"It's the album I've always wanted to brand," Tesfaye teased GQ in August. Tesfaye delivers on this grand claim, filling the collection with so many psychedelic disco, dance-pop, and funk-popular political party tracks that, listening to them, you experience absorbed in overwhelming emotion. And he's also gotten some help from all-star rappers like Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator, as well every bit an unexpected advent from actor Jim Carrey, who plays the role of a soothing radio host.
Tesfaye captures the disorientation of the in-between. As he explained to Billboard in November, he imagined the listener having an out-of-torso experience, as if they are navigating the route from death to the afterlife.
"And they're stuck in this purgatory country, which I always imagined would be similar existence stuck in traffic waiting to reach the light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "And while yous're stuck in traffic, they got a radio station playing in the car, with a radio host guiding you to the low-cal and helping you transition to the other side. And so it could experience celebratory, could feel bleak, all the same you desire to make information technology feel, simply that's what The Dawn is for me."
Although Tesfaye still maintains his reputation for making music about sex, drugs, and partying, the LP is also an existential plea to free yourself from regrets and shame. Beneath, we unpack each vocal on Dawn FM track by track and mood by mood.
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"Dawn FM" (ft. Jim Carrey)
Listen to it when you're feeling: gear up to unwind.
Fundamental lyric: "We'll be at that place to hold your manus and guide you through this painless transition"
The intro and title track of the album begins with a hypnotic ambience and chirping birds, luring yous equally if y'all are traveling into some other dimension. Tesfaye narrates in an echoey voice with a chorus about wanting to take the lead, this time by himself: "This part I do alone / I'll accept my lead, I'll take my lead on this road / And I need something to hold / Make me believe in make-behavior."
The rail and so transitions to the legendary Jim Carrey reporting in a low voice on the radio: "You are now listening to 103.5 Dawn FM / You've been in the dark for way too long / It'due south time to walk into the light / And accept your fate with open arms." This will non exist the last you volition hear from Carrey, but he and Tesfaye are here to assure yous they volition hold your hand and guide you through this ephemeral moment as you enjoy the music to come.
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"Gasoline"
Listen to it when yous're feeling: deep in your depressing thoughts.
Primal lyric: "It's 5 a.m. and I'm feeling nihilist / I know there's nothing after this / Obsessing over aftermaths / Apocalypse and hopelessness"
On this funk-pop track, Tesfaye is awake in the early morning, feeling empty and getting high on his need for his lover to be at that place with him again. "I want you 'cause we're both insane / I'm staring into the abyss / I'm lookin' at myself again / I'm dozing off to R.E.Grand," he sings. He voices that a concrete presence would be comforting and make him feel rubber. And his lover also keeps him in check ("I know you won't allow me O.D.").
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"How Do I Make You Love Me?"
Listen to information technology when you're: begging to be loved.
Central lyric: "How do I make you honey me? / How practice I make you lot fall for me? / How do I make you want me / And make it last eternally?"
As many of his songs speak openly about earthly delights, y'all'd call back Tesfaye wouldn't care so much almost what people retrieve of him. But he admits he even so craves approval from the 1 he adores on this dance-pop track: "I only desire what's right in front of me / Information technology's quite unusual / Seeking approval / Begging for it desperately." Wealth and fame are not his top desires.
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"Take My Breath"
Listen to it when yous're feeling: hedonistic and kinky.
Key lyric: "I know temptation is the devil in disguise"
The album transitions smoothly into an extended version of the lead single of Dawn FM. On this retro '70s and '80s disco runway, Tesfaye is willing to take your breath — and comprehend his kinky fantasies. He describes his partner as someone who "loves to be on the border." Even the music video accompanying this rail shows "nobody does it improve" than she does while tightly pulling him in a consensual chokehold. Tesfaye wants her to make that decadent bliss "last forever."
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"Sacrifice"
Mind to information technology when you're feeling: selfish almost your needs.
Fundamental lyric: "I don't desire to sacrifice / For your love / I try / I don't want to cede / But I love my time"
Backed by electrical guitar, Tesfaye warns potential lovers and friends with benefits against catching feelings due to his lack of interest in a committed relationship. He references the harsh winters in his hometown of Toronto as a metaphor for his coldness in romance: "I was born in a city / Where the winter nights don't e'er sleep / So this life's e'er with me / The water ice within my veins will never bleed." Tesfaye doesn't deny he enjoys company, but he isn't up for monogamy at the moment.
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"A Tale By Quincy" (ft. Quincy Jones)
Listen to it when you're feeling: wistful about the implications of your past.
Fundamental lyric: "Looking back is a bowwow, innit?"
On this synthesizer-heavy interlude, producer Quincy Jones reflects dorsum on his childhood and upbringing. This track is a relatable parallel to Tesfaye'southward ain narrative. Jones discusses how an sick, absent mother and an abusive stepmother majorly impacted him, bleeding into his later familial and romantic relationships. "Whenever I got too shut to a woman, I would cut her off," he admits. "Part of that was vindictive and partially based on fear. But it was also totally hidden." Information technology's amazing how your primeval memories can shape how you perceive others.
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"Out of Time"
Listen to information technology when you're feeling: regretful of the injure you've caused.
Key lyric: "I look back and at present I realize"
With a smooth transition back to '80s synths, Tesfaye sings of his want for a second risk. He admits to being responsible for the cause of a breakup: "The final few months, I've been workin' on me, baby / There'due south so much trauma in my life / I've been so cold to the ones who loved me, baby." His ex was originally the one begging "with drowning eyes" to stay, just now that she's plant someone else, it has reversed. Tesfaye tells her that if things don't work out with her current partner, she knows his line.
Carrey makes another appearance at the terminate of the track, reporting on 103.five Dawn FM radio that you are out of time simply you are nearly reaching your destination. He assures the listener with a nod to one of his iconic film roles in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Heed: "Before you're completely engulfed in the blissful embrace of that footling light you see in the distance / Soon you'll be healed, forgiven, and refreshed / Free from all trauma, pain, guilt, and shame."
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"Here Nosotros Go... Again" (ft. Tyler, the Creator)
Heed to it when you're: falling in dearest over again just wary.
Primal lyric: "But you'd rather dearest and lost with tears / Than never dear at all"
On this wearisome track, Tesfaye and Tyler, the Creator tell a cautionary tale of what it's similar to exist in love while too having fame and wealth because of potential users: "Your girlfriend'due south tryna pair you with somebody more than famous / Simply instead you ended up with someone so basic, faceless / Someone to have your pictures and frame it." Tyler fifty-fifty raps almost how love may not be unconditional: "Although this love is strong to me / Some things can alter, become wrong with me / We don't know how it's gonna be / Forever is too long to me." But regardless, Tesfaye thinks information technology's ameliorate to adventure heartbreak than never beloved at all.
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"Best Friends"
Listen to it when you're feeling: friend-zoned.
Key lyric: "I love yous so / Simply nosotros tin't get close / You're my best friend now"
With repetitive heavy bass to emphasize the drama, Tesfaye is stuck in a friends-with-benefits situation where he secretly wants more than sexual practice. But he also doesn't want to lose his partner: "Oh, I don't desire to exist responsible / For your eye if nosotros fall / 'Cause I'll get clumsy and tear it apart." He reminds her to non take it further and but focus on the friendship, but boundaries were crossed ("I thought you weren't like that").
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"Is There Someone Else?"
Listen to it when you're feeling: suspicious of an unfaithful partner.
Key lyric: "Oh, is at that place someone else or not? / 'Cause I wanna keep you shut / I don't wanna lose my spot"
Since their human relationship has been straining, Tesfaye has a bad feeling that his partner is cheating on him ("I felt it creeping upward every mean solar day"). He admits he wasn't always an honest person in the past ("'Cause I used to be the one who was lying"), but he cares securely for his lover and wants to be with her forever. Just if she's betraying him or the guy she's adulterous with, it's going to injure everyone.
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"Starry Eyes"
Heed to it when yous're feeling: protective.
Key lyric: "Let me be there / I can be there 'til yous're whole"
On this sympathetic rails, Abel wants to stand up past dearest interest and brand her experience appreciated: "Permit me be there / Let me be there for your heart / Allow me beloved you / Permit me dear you like you need." He is also empathetic of the hurting she'south felt in the past: "It's OK, baby / I promise that I felt worse / Back then, I was starry eyed / And now I'one thousand then cynical."
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"Every Angel Is Terrifying"
Listen to information technology when you're feeling: lured to enter a different world.
Key lyric: "You will enter a world beyond your imagination"
Tesfaye speaks nearly the terror of dazzler on the second electronic interlude of the album, noting that the angels nosotros see in popular culture are more than frightening when reading their actual Biblical depictions. An ad accompanies, marketing "the exotic, baroque and beautiful globe of 'After Life'" with "a future out of control / And an experience you lot will never forget." If you're interested, you lot can punch 1-800-414-4444, merely don't say we didn't warn y'all.
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"Don't Intermission My Heart"
Mind to information technology when you're feeling: agape of being injure once more.
Key lyric: "I tin't have another heartbreak or I'll end information technology all"
This dreamy track will make you lot feel equally paralyzed as Tesfaye felt. He sings about how he's mesmerized past someone he sees in the club. He instinctively knows she is right for him and "keeps coming dorsum for more than," just he is afraid. "Only don't break my centre / Don't let me down, please," he sings. "Don't yous break my heart / I don't know if I can take it anymore." He doesn't want the past to repeat ("And the girl I used to love / Nosotros broke upwardly in the club / And I almost died in the discotheque").
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"I Heard You're Married" (ft. Lil Wayne)
Listen to it when y'all're feeling: deceived.
Central lyric: "And I thought you lot were someone I could be with / And information technology kills me that I'yard sharing you lot"
Tesfaye sings about his shame in being involved with a married woman in this rhythmic track ("You lot manifested this, just girl, I blame myself"). Although he usually may not be interested in committed relationships, he ended upwardly communicable strong feelings during the fling and was deceived to find out the truth almost her. Tesfaye all the same maintains his dignity by telling her off: "If you lot don't love him / Then practise yourself a favor and just leave him / Your number in my phone, I'g gon' delete it / Girl, I'm way too grown for that deceivin'. Lil Wayne appears in the third verse with a line that hits like a truck: "That shit own't fly, bitch."
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"Less Than Zero"
Listen to information technology when you lot're feeling: not feeling enough.
Key lyric: "I'll e'er be less than zero / You tried your all-time with me, I know"
In this electronic track mixed with guitar-pop strings, Tesfaye sings about how he does non feel worthy because of the trauma and darkness he holds. "'Cause I can't become it out of my head / No, I can't shake this feeling that crawls in my bed," he sings in the chorus. But it doesn't mean he wants to be stuck with his demons forever: "I endeavor to hide it, just I know you know me / I endeavor to fight it, but I'd rather be free." He begs for his partner to be understanding to no avail ("Now you lot'd rather leavŠµ me / Than to sentinel me die in your artillery, oh").
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"Phantom Regret By Jim" (ft. Jim Carrey)
Listen to it when you're feeling: in need of wisdom to experience costless.
Key lyric: "Sky's for those who permit go of regret"
Carrey returns to close the album with an encouraging verse form on which to reflect ("Information technology'due south fourth dimension to look back on the things you thought you owned") on your life. He asks you several open-ended questions: "How many grudges did y'all take to your grave? / When you weren't liked or followed, how did you behave? / Was information technology often a dissonant chord you were strumming? / Were you lot ever in tune with the song life was bustling?" Carrey says that to experience free from pain, you must learn to let go of your regrets. "You gotta unwind your mind, train your soul to marshal. In other words, yous gotta exist heaven to meet heaven."
Source: https://www.mtv.com/news/3183476/the-weeknd-dawn-fm-mood-music/
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