Review: The Weeknd - Echoes of Silence

4/5 stars
At first glance, Echoes of Silence might sound similar to The Weeknd's two previous mix tapes, but this album definitively takes the charming, seductive mask off of the R&B genre and reveals the creepy, pathetic movie-monster that hides behind it. This may not sound like praise, but I mean it as exactly that.

 Over the past year, the Canadian artist The Weeknd has released three fantastic mix tapes, in which he has distorted and stretched the perimeters of what is considered R&B. Part of that has been musically, his music has sampled everything from Siouxsie and the Banshees to Beach House, which isn't typical terrain for artists within his genre. The other way has been lyrically, specifically through the hedonistic night world he portrays and the predatory character he inhabits. Pitchfork has written that:

"Debauchery is obviously nothing new in R&B, but this takes it a step further-- the drugs are harder, the come-ons feel predatory and lecherous, and the general feeling is self-hating rather than celebratory."

Just to be clear, The Weeknd makes some seriously creepy music. The ethical issues surrounding his music have been debated to death in a thousand think pieces this year, but I feel like most of the debate has missed the point. The Weeknd does not seem to be attempting to create a sympathetic character. The parties and the drugs seem to only bring self-hatred, while his dealings with women are portrayed in such a creepy light that it becomes clear that The Weeknd isn't trying to create a misogynistic fantasy but rather a nightmare. This means that critics who write about living vicariously through The Weeknd are also missing the point, and in a way that is as creepy as the music. The night life that The Weeknd illustrates is one where there are real consequences for hedonism and the man trying to pick you up at the bar is probably a well-dressed and charming psychopath.

Echoes starts out with The Weeknd showing off his vocal chops on a cover of Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana. The risky move of covering M.J. pays off and The Weeknd opens his album with an update that mixes the smooth sounds of R&B with stadium drums and underlying, brooding industrial noise that often simmers to the surface. D.D. and the next few songs seem to paint the most sympathetic face that The Weeknd has shown yet and Outside almost sounds romantic in a nihilistic and damaged sort of way.

The album very quickly turns into a horror movie with the two center pieces of the album, XO/The Host and The Initiation in which The Weeknd evolves from the opportunistic creep he has been on previous albums into a full blown monster.  It is like the charismatic mask accidentally fell off and all the empty charms of the R&B genre have melted away leaving the victim in the hands of a manipulative psychopath.  These songs legitimately creeped me out. I first listened to them last night on a midnight stroll, the experience being similar to the thrill one gets from watching a scary movie. On XO, he takes advantage of a desperate girl who has been evicted from her apartment, portraying himself as her saviour as he uses her desperation to his own advantage. The Initiation has The Weeknd electronically distorting his voice, speeding it up and slowing it down, probably as a way to sonically represent a drug trip. The affect is menacing and frightening and the lyrics are as predatory as ever.
"No more crying, heart rate's low, put that rum down you don't want to die tonight," he sings while declaring that it is a "fucking celebration."

The effect of these two songs on the rest of the album is profound.  Same Old Song immediately follows these two horrifying songs, and could be considered as a run-of-the-mill song about jilted love. The two previous songs infect this song with a menace that it could not have on its own.  The second half of the album, seen separately from the rest of the album seems to paint the character as one who has seen his fair share of heat breaks and has been used and taken advantage of by previous girlfriends. Out of these songs, The Fall is definitely the best. The song seems to constantly try to break free from its chains and evolve into a dance floor beat but The Weeknd refuses to release the tension.

Viewed as part of the larger narrative of the album the songs take on a victim-blaming tone, especially the title track in which he pushes fault onto a girl who has come over, telling her that it is her masochistic tendencies that have led her there. The Weeknd's character comes across as pathetic as he pleads for her not to leave him while he declares that she has no one to blame but herself for the results. On this track, I can't help but be reminded of stories about abusive husbands who after beating their wives will beg them not to leave, and result is chilling.

I might not be making a very good case for anyone to listen to this album, but The Weeknd's music is interesting as one of the few voices that paints the club scene as dangerous and scary nightmare. In popular culture and music this year, pop has been invaded by the club style of euro-house and dubstep. The results that I often hear on the radio illustrate the club as a place of sex and fun that has few consequences. The Weeknd, on the other hand, goes in the complete opposite direction. The clubs and the nightlife are scary and full of misery and the only pleasures to be had are masochistic. The Weeknd doesn't paint this picture from an outside perspective, instead he tells his story from an insiders perspective, as one of the predators that haunts the dark corners of the club.

An issue that I would like to avoid, but feel obligated to address is a comparison of this album to his previous work. Over his three mix tapes, The Weeknd has obviously evolved and improved as an artist, but I still feel that his initial mix tape House of Balloons is still the best out of the three.  Echoes is an improvement on the over/under-rated Thursday but it still doesn't quite reach the heights of his debut. I was hoping to avoid this issue because I feel that comparison undermines just how good this album is. Though it shares a lot of similar themes and sounds from the previous two albums it feels like a complete narrative on its own and I think it deserves to be evaluated in that way.

I have included a link to download his mix tape below:
http://the-weeknd.com/