The Weeknd
“Beauty Behind the Madness”
The long-anticipated “Beauty Behind the Madness” finds the Weeknd moving away from making club music for the Instagram generation to instead making straight-up club music. Chart-topper and instant pop classic “Can’t Feel My Face” struts like the Michael Jackson comeback song we never got, while the chorus to opener “Real Life” copies so liberally from the Phil Collins songbook that one may actually mistake it for a Phil Collins cover (no, really). “Last year I did all the politickin’,” he declares on the Kanye West-produced lounger “Tell Your Friends.” “This year imma focus on the vision.”
“Beauty Behind the Madness” was released during a year when seemingly every notable chart success referenced ’80s pop music in some way, ranging from R&B hits adapting Whitney Houston choruses to rock bands going the full John Hughes to Carly Rae Jepsen’s critically-loved new set. By the time Tesfaye gets to yet another song that shamelessly echoes Quincy Jones-era MJ in the form of the less-flashy “In the Night,” it still sounds fresh in a way that the relentlessly futuristic “Kiss Land” only wished it could be, even if it signals the fact that Tesfaye does occasionally lap himself in terms of texture.
What makes “Beauty Behind the Madness” so interesting is many will find it easy to write off as Tesfaye’s big sellout moment just as others will be quick to declare a subversive pop masterpiece. In fact, both sides are right in their own way, as “Beauty” swaps out the Weeknd’s traditional black light bemoanings in favor of humming neon fluorescents, the party line kept intact even though all the guests are having much more fun this time round. Tesfaye still very much wants to remain true to himself while simultaneously capturing the pop zeitgeist, and although only a faint number of artists have managed to pull it off, after listening to “Beauty Behind the Madness,” you’ll realize that Tesfaye is closer than ever to having it.
Rating: 6 of 10
— Evan Sawdey, Popmatters.com
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