Abel Tesfaye, the voice behind Toronto-based The Weeknd, has had quite the year. In March, he released “House of Balloons”, a dark collection of songs that emphasized his strengths as a prolific, melody-building crooner. Tesfaye oddly stayed out of the direct spotlight, which raised the anticipation from his fans for new material, that came in the form of another mixtape entitled “Thursday”. After the two mixtapes, and appearing on Drake’s “Take Care” multiple times, Tesfaye dropped his final mixtape to complete the trilogy. “Echoes of Silence” reignites the feeling of hearing The Weeknd for the first time while building some interesting new sounds.
The mixtape begins with “D.D.”, a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana”, and The Weeknd completely owns it. The track begins slowly and quietly, building into a dominating beat while Tesfaye seemingly channels Michael Jackson directly. In fact, he does such an amazing job on the track that he actually sounds more like Jackson than The Weeknd. On “Montreal” Tesfaye croons in French with a wink to his home country. The bilingual lyrics are a welcomed feature since sometimes the content of his songs feel one-note. “XO/The Host,” has one of his most enticing beats, with urgent drums, a whining guitar that sounds more like Tesfaye than an instrument, and a double-clap that pushes the song forward while not completely taking the attention away from Tesfaye’s vocal performance.
Songs like “Initiation”, which sees Tesfaye’s voice distorted throughout, might come as a surprise to The Weeknd. Towards the end of the track, a sample of Drake’s appearance on “Thursday’s” “The Zone” starts to play on repeat and is heavily distorted to sound borderline demonic. Drake raps, “That North North/That up-top/That OVO and that XO,” referencing their relationship as fellow Toronto musicians, touching on his own October’s Very Own imprint while shouting out XO, which is the label that The Weeknd used to release all three mixtapes. Meanwhile, a distant voice crows in the background of this track that’s a little reminiscent of Shabazz Palace’s “An Echo From the Hosts That Profess Infinitum” from “Black Up”, perhaps a deliberate allusion to another fringe pop act with a strong cult following.
The collaboration, the name-dropping and the possible reference all combine to make the track ooze with an up-and-coming confidence that you’ve got to admire. It really speaks to the notoriety that The Weeknd has garnered over this past year.
Much less admirable is “Same Old Song” which features a monologue at the end of the song with an obnoxious voice yelling about how The Weeknd can get “panties wet” and describes a night of venturing to strip clubs with piles of money. It’s totally jarring since Tesfaye has been so selective about how his music is presented to listeners. Hearing an explicit voice yelling boring cliches after the most tender track on the album sends a conflicting message about how The Weeknd wants to be perceived.
“Echoes of Silence” ends with a barren track that contains a solemn piano and Tesfaye’s voice, which seems like a completely obvious way to end his mixtape trilogy. While it does lack any sort of surprise, it is the first time that listeners are able to hear his voice in the purest form and his performance is very impressive.
While there are experimental elements on the mixtape, Tesfaye doesn’t alienate his fans by greatly changing his sound. In fact, this sounds like a combination of the best parts of “Thursday” and “House of Balloons”, with varied beats and some of the most innovative song-writing to come from him this year. If you’re into The Weeknd’s previous work, you will undoubtedly love this mixtape simply because it gives you another avenue to hear beautiful, shuddering tracks about embracing love and struggling with lust.
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