By Jacob Onken, Contributing Writer
On his new album Dawn FM, The Weeknd continues to expand the sounds he emulated so well on After Hours. He is pushing towards an ‘80s synth pop sound that goes toe-to-toe with the music from that era; however, this time instead of it being a random batch of songs there is a story weaved into the album. The story is immersive as the listeners tune into a dystopian radio station, hosted by comedy legend Jim Carrey, whose role seems to be to attract new listeners to join his cult.
The album starts off with the title track “Dawn FM” and is intended to transport listeners into a new dimension being created by The Weeknd. The song begins with robotic sounding birds chirping and an organ lulling its new members into feeling safe, before The Weeknd angelically starts singing about how alone he is. After this, the voice of Carrey informs the new members of the world that he will guide them in this dimension. This track does a stellar job in preparing for what is to come in the album. Just like in this song, the beats are outstanding for the rest of the LP. Some of the best tracks on Dawn FM are “Take My Breath,” “Less Than Zero,” and “How Do I Make you Love Me.”
“Take My Breath” was the only single The Weeknd released from Dawn FM. The album version of the song is two minutes longer than the single track and has an extended beat that prepares the audience for what is to come. The Weeknd engraves some of the song’s lyrics into the beat. He also adds eerie synths that match more with the vibe of the album. The synths crash into the intro to give the song more of a bite. In the middle interlude of the track, he uses autotuned samples of his voice that almost mimic panting. It makes it feel like The Weeknd shares the room with the listener. By doing this the album version of “Take My Breath” becomes darker and more sinister.
“Less Than Zero” is the closing track to the LP; surprisingly, this song seems like it was inspired by “The Man Who Sold the World” by David Bowie. Right before the hook, a synthesizer going up enters the track and sounds like a sped-up version of the hook in the aforementioned David Bowie song. It was unexpected to hear influences from David Bowie in this album because so much of it was inspired by R&B legends Prince and Michael Jackson. The beat for this song is hopeful, which mimics how eager the lyrics are. The Weeknd wants so badly to get back with the person this track is about, but how he treated her comes back to bite him.
“How Do I Make you Love Me” starts off slower but hits with an explosion of pianos, drumrolls, glitched vocals, and claps in the middle. This explosion saves the track because the intro to the beat is too minimal and boring. Some of the other tracks on this album are slower but this song starts off with a simple drum pattern and tiny hits of synths which make it sound bare. When the explosion hits, the song gets a million times more exciting. The Weeknd’s voice glides over the beat making it easy to sing along with and to get stuck in listener’s heads.
Although this album is great, it isn’t perfect. The track “Gasoline” has wonderful subject matter about drug abuse and a lover who he is begging to stay. The problem is some of the vocals at the start of the track are a little too off kilter. The Weeknd’s voice is so different that on first listen, it sounded like an alternative British singer was being featured. This is the only track on the album where The Weeknd used this different voice. It comes from out of left field and makes the song feel uneven.
The next track that missed on the album, “Every Angel is Terrifying,” isn’t even a song… it’s a glorified skit. The beat for this track is killer. It’s loud, futuristic, and sounds like two lightsabers clashing into one another. This beat transitions into an advertisement on the radio station that deflates everything the beat was building up to. The track is the definition of disappointing.
As a sequel, Dawn FM does more than enough to separate itself from its prior counterpart, After Hours, while still holding onto the main aspects of the first album. It surpasses the greatness of After Hours because of how much more comfortable The Weeknd sounds with this aesthetic. Although there aren’t as many singles or club anthems, Dawn FM reaches new creative heights that exceed anything The Weeknd has released before. The public might prefer After Hours more because of its timeless tracks, but the inventive nature of Dawn FM makes this album one of The Weeknd’s greats.
