11/12/2022 0 Comments Soundcloud the weeknd starboy albumLove To Lay returns to pop fare by Max Martin and Ali Payami. For once the woman in the Weeknd’s world is not a coke snorting, gold digger but a go getter and that marks a remarkable change in his view of the women in his life. A killer track featuring vocals from Future the rapper, it samples Metro Boomin and Ben Billion’s production off Low Life from Future’s album EVOL and continues where Beyonce’s 6 Inch Heels dropped off after the Weeknd featured on it. One of the highlights of the album, this track is followed by Six Feet Under. The vocal bridge adds texture to the track, letting the instrumentation and vocals only step in when needed. While Tesfaye’s vocals are autotuned to a slightly unacceptable level, it is Lamar’s unstructured yet smart wordplay on Sidewalks that really steal the show. Kendrick Lamar – rapper extraordinaire – in his first collaboration with the Canadian artist, brings his A-game. The chanteuse on the other hand, doesn’t let us down – hypnotic vocals about sex in the kitchen and falsetto vocals fill up nearly a minute and a half of the interlude – and made me want more from this pair. Despite collaborating with the likes of Beyonce and Nicki Minaj, the XO singer recruits his best friend on the album for a separate cut that elevates her to be his Stargirl, the only woman his music seems to subconsciously refer to. Produced by Labrinth, the track serves as a reminder of the close friendship Lana and The Weeknd share. With writing and vocal credits on Starboy, the Weeknd enlists his muse and her penchant for unearthly vocal runs, both on Party Monster and Stargirl – a record that features Lana on vocals while the Weeknd joins her at the end. The only collaborator off his debut returning to Starboy is his muse Lana Del Rey. Cashmere Cat whose reputation of producing beats tailor made for RnB artists that use harmonies and vocal runs that fans hear on records that never make it to the radio, doesn’t disappoint. True Colors, on the other hand is better than Secrets partly due to Benny Blanco and Cashmere Cat’s involvement. There’s talk of love on the bright side on Secrets and True Colors, with the themes straying from a sense of wayward relationships to love with no conditions applied and for once directed to a woman with little or no misogyny implied. Redeeming himself on tracks like Secrets and True Colors, the Weeknd returns to smoother RnB fare without the darkness he often tends to favor on his tracks. Rockin’, with its pop-rock-RnB vibe feels like too many ideas were fused together to make a slightly disoriented mess of a song, since smart vocals and not wordplay is the Weeknd’s strong suit, but is banger nonetheless. There’s a sample involved, a nod to his Ethiopian heritage, well intended but ill placed. False Alarm, feels like an afterthought that could’ve missed making it on the album, since its reception wasn’t as warm as the other singles earned upon their release. Party Monster and Reminder open with menacing beats but back up the tone with killer choruses on the former and well-paced verses on the latter with the slightly disappointing False Alarm sandwiched between them. Taking advantage of Tesfaye’s high vocal register and falsetto, Starboy and I Feel It Coming are perfectly manipulated to sound like radio ready tracks and in my opinion may not have been as successful if it weren’t for the Weeknd featured on the vocals. Daft Punk, have an uncanny talent for mixing and matching vocal tones and their synthetic music as is evident on Starboy and I Feel It Coming. The titular lead track serves as an example of a good balance of disco and RnB, especially with the menacing drums looping in the background, transforming the Weeknd’s take on the excesses of life to highs rather than lows. With RnB at its centre, pop, disco, funk, and a little bit of rock are sprinkled in to highlight what each one of these artists bring to Starboy. The Weeknd’s themes though still the same – drugs, cars, women, misogyny, sadness, and love – deviate from their dark RnB roots to radio friendly pop right from the start, and it’s a refreshing direction to take, now that people have noticed him.Įveryone from Max Martin, Diplo, Cashmere Cat, Daft Punk, Cirkut, Benny Blanco, Labrinth and the likes of collaborators like Future, Kendrick Lamar, and Lana Del Rey feature on some of the best tracks on the album. In preparation for The Weeknd’s release of Starboy, I decided it’d be the best time to refresh my memory of RnB that didn’t involve Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston.Īfter soaking in some R Kelly, and more recent acts like Angel and Kalin White, who are just as good as the Weeknd, especially in the broader sense of the RnB genre, Starboy dropped just in time with a few surprises.
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