This is the latest project from Toronto R&B star Abel Tesfaye, otherwise known as The Weeknd, who is coming off of a 2017 spent promoting his 2016 album “Starboy,” an album I personally loved. In fact, 2017 started with the title track from that album reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “I Feel It Coming” also reached the Top 10 (peaking at #4), and the two singles reached #20 and #34 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100. He also spent the year on his “Starboy: Legend of the Fall” tour (I should know, I saw him twice!), and he received features on several noteworthy albums in 2017, such as Future’s “HNDRXX,” NAV’s…"NAV," Lana Del Rey’s “Lust for Life,” French Montana’s “Jungle Rules,” Lil Uzi Vert’s “Luv is Rage 2,” and Gucci Mane’s “Mr. Davis.” He also opened 2018 by collaborating with Kendrick Lamar for the track “Pray For Me” from the “Black Panther” soundtrack, a track that, as of this writing, is still in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 despite the film “Black Panther” being well over a month old.
It’s clear the Starboy has been on fire, and I’ve been very excited to see where he would go from that album, so here he is with a surprise EP, and given the EP's short length and lack of singles, I get the impression that this isn’t all we’re gonna get from him this year. Perhaps it's a holdover for a new full-length album he'll drop later this year? Maybe he's pulling another "Trilogy" and he's gonna release two more EPs during the year? Who knows, but regardless, there’s been a lot of rumors about this project, and his new album, for that matter, taking things back to his roots, so let’s listen and see what it’s like, shall we?
Call Out My Name: A very light ballad, I can already see what people were talking about with Abel going back to his older sound. This definitely sounds really close to the things Abel offered during the “Trilogy” days, but that doesn’t mean it’s not successful, because it really is. Abel croons on this track about his struggles to let go of a relationship he previously had, and with the heavy but slow drum beat here, I feel like it’s the perfect compromise between his old and new stuff. It’s got the feel and the vibe of the old stuff, but it also has the vocal maturity The Weeknd has shown since the “Trilogy.” Really great start to this EP.
Try Me: This one is really interesting to me because it’s got a very somber feel to it, but it’s also a bit more uptempo than the last one. I feel like it’s a really great, emotional track with some really beautiful vocals from Abel, as he talks on here about how a girl he used to be with should come back to him, instead of being in an unhappy relationship with her current man. The 808-drum beat on this one is head-noddy and fun, and it’s got a really great vibe to it. Another great track!
Wasted Times: A very introspective cut, The Weeknd appears to bare it all on this track by allegedly talking about his two high-profile relationships that he had with Bella Hadid and Selena Gomez. You can kind of infer from his lyrics here that, as he thinks back to his time with Bella, he realizes that his relationship with Selena was a waste of time. All speculation, but that stuff aside, I actually get some neat, somewhat old-school R&B vibes here, and parts of the song feel like a throwback to “Angel” from “Beauty Behind the Madness.” Abel’s vocals, while filtered throughout, are very smooth and pretty, and I like the click-clack percussion on this track. Definitely gonna come back to this one in the future!
I Was Never There (ft. Gesaffelstein): Another track that feels like a lot of Abel’s old-school stuff, I really love his vocals throughout this one, as he croons about how he can’t have a regular relationship with a woman, how his lifestyle at this point simply revolves around sex, and how it will almost feel like he wasn’t there because there was no feeling between him and the girl he talks about. Gesaffelstein helps produce this one, and he makes a track that’s dark and moody with some cool feel changes here and there, and of course, Abel's vocals are fantastic as always. Really enjoyed this one a lot, definitely want to come back to it in the future.
Hurt You (ft. Gesaffelstein): Gesaffelstein also helps to produce this track, as Abel sends out a warning on this one about his struggles with relationships and how he’s not looking for a commitment like that. I feel like I get so many vibes to other Weeknd tracks on this one, and I mean that in a good way. It kinda feels like he mixed his older style with “As You Are” and “Pray For Me” and they hyper-collaborated to make this happen. I feel like it’s a track with that same dark feel of his old stuff, but a head-noddy and fun enough feel to satisfy people like me that got into The Weeknd with his new stuff. Another track I really enjoyed!
Privilege: This final track seems to be a final goodbye from Abel to Selena Gomez, as he alludes to The Matrix’s “red/blue pills” by using the red pill to describe living in reality to take away the false-hope that is provided to him by the blue pill. Given the very dark instrumental here, this continues to remind me of Abel’s old-school stuff. It’s very ethereal, moody, and nocturnal, and while it’s the most minimal track on this project, it’s still a really beautiful cut that leaves me excited to see what comes next from him!
Overall, The Weeknd’s “My Dear Melancholy,” might just be a short EP, but it’s an extremely enjoyable one! Abel goes back to his roots a bit here, but instead of simply resting on his laurels and making something that sounds old-school to shut the “hardcore XO fans" up, it feels like he tries to make something that acts as a perfect “best of both worlds” experience, where we get that dark, moody feel that the “Trilogy” provided, but we also get that head-noddy, fun production, and vocal maturity that Abel has shown throughout his latest albums. It definitely feels like there’s a lot to like about this project, regardless of whether you consider yourself an old-school Weeknd fan or a new fan. And while it’s a really short project, there’s a lot of good things going on here that make me very excited to see what Abel has in store for the rest of this year. Is this the first part of a series of EPs that will combine together much like the “Trilogy” did back in 2011? Or is this a simple holdover until Abel releases one, full-length album later in the year? It’s hard to say, but at least what we’re given here is some damn good stuff.
And you know what? For a man who comes alive in the Fall time…he does pretty damn well in the Spring, too.
Favorite tracks: ALL OF THEM
Least favorite tracks: NAHHHHHHHHHH
Rating: Excellent
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