After Hours is, in a way, a return to roots for Canadian singer Abel Tesfaye, with the whole album feeling like the delivery of the promise from the Trilogy mixtape. After Hours presents us The Weeknd in, perhaps, his most dark and twisted avatar yet, and does this through absolutely haunting melodies and lyrics that speak of a damaged man beyond help.
The album wastes no time establishing its mood, and opens with a series of sparkling, whirring synths and a brooding chorus with The Weeknd’s signature toxic longingness wafting over snaking hats: “I don’t know if I can be alone again/I don’t know if I can sleep alone again.” The track practically oozes nihilism and debauchery, and this is the very same mood that permeates the entire album.
If Trilogy introduced the hedonistically broken persona Abel uses, then After Hours has perfected that persona a thousand times over. Abel has finally found the character he wants The Weeknd to be; after going through the drug-addled romantic of Trilogy, combined with the debauchery and extravagance of an album like Starboy and heartbroken, shattered character in My Dear Melancholy. The album, in a way, is a ballad about how The Weeknd is the guilty party in a broken relationship, and how he wishes he wasn’t. His mood swings between nihilism and narcissism, and the music swings with him to match. The album is also swirling with themes that signal this loneliness— the anti-hero of pop— ranging from how he is ‘blinded by reality’ and how the city of Los Angeles and fame have utterly warped his life and himself into this person who has been damaged by love and who will not stop the cycle at himself. This grungy loneliness and toxicity reaches its climax on the track Faith, most notably at the lyric, “If I OD/ I want you to OD right beside me,” which evokes imagery of The Weeknd dragging his lover into the same abyss of destruction and inebriation he has found himself in.
The album is not perfect, not by any means, with tracks like Hardest To Love and Snowchild leaving some to be desired lyrically, and the album doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It’s just another Weeknd album, which deals with man of the same themes of drugs and sex and heartbreak, but to be fair The Weeknd has cornered that market fairly well and knows what he is doing, alongside doing it well.
Another highlight is how Abel has given the album this subsurface texture of an arena 80’s pop vibe, with a lot of the synths and the drums feeling extremely large, punchy and twinkly and the music having a general Las Vegas casino tint to it. The Weeknd has spiralled out of control and the syncopated UK Garage beats add to this chaotic atmosphere.
The album has been produced by multiple producers, with the notable inclusion of Metro Boomin and Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, and Abel himself producing parts of the album. The diverse array of producers all bleed their style into the album and make it sound larger than life and lends to the high production value of the album.
Overall, the album is a solid new piece by The Weeknd, if perhaps a little overly edgy. it was met with critical acclaim, scoring high scores across multiple publications. The album opened at the top of the Billboard top 200 and all fourteen tracks charted on the Billboard top 100, with then songs in the top 40. The album boasts the biggest first week sales of 2020 for an album. It’s interesting to think about where he plans to go next, now that he has essentially reached the pinnacle of his bad boy persona. Either way, we can be sure that this is not an album that will soon be forgotten, as it is one of Abel’s best works yet.
Written by Crew Members- Akshay Dhansoia and Meenakshi Swami
Artwork by Crew Member- Aaditya Nair
Chords & Co. 