The Weeknd has been successfully making music since 2012 as a mainstream R&B artist who balances nicely between that and pop artist with both albums and mixtapes. His angelic voice has always captivated us to listen to him sing about anything like drugs/partying and women. He never actually makes bad music on any of his albums but it hard to tell some of his songs from each other as they all have the same sound or theme to them. “After Hours” his fourth studio album which is all of his is own work without any features and him producing it all plus a short film to go with it. His epic-post-breakup album is exactly what we all need during these dark times as we can relate to heartbreak, toxic relationships, the want of not being alone, overcoming addiction, mortality and the wanting of going home.
He shows us he is struggling between the personas of the mainstream pop-star or the troubled authentic artist that he is ever growing like everyone else. Tracks “Escape from LA” and “Blinding Lights” deal with him tying LA/Vegas to all of his drug problems/his ex-girlfriends hurting him that fame has ruined him that is why he talks about his childhood home of Canada. The single “Blinded by the Lights” one of the best songs he admits again he has to be single forever/lost his ability to love and that fame/wealth has blinded him. That he only spends time around with women to distract himself from being lonely/doing drugs.
We all do not want to be alone but is it worth to be in a bad relationship just to escape the feeling which is a theme throughout the album and him realizing all the mistakes he made in his life. Songs “Too Late”, “Hardest to Love” and “Scared to Live” are about him realizing the mistakes he made like having a negative impact on his relationship that his ex-girlfriend felt forced to keep loving him and lost her love for him. “Scared to Live” is one of the best/emotional songs on the album and he gives writing credit to Elton John for his interruption of the lines from “Your Song”. He takes the blame for it how the relationship ended that he made the mistakes.
The other themes like drug abuse are mentioned in “Alone Again”, “Snowchild”, “Heartless” and “Faith”. He struggles with knowing who he is on drugs or not and who he is with his girlfriend or single that he has had some overdose scares that he needs her to help get him clean. He talks about his past with self-harm and being homeless for a bit during his younger days in Canada as he references snow which could be actual snow or drugs. In “Heartless”(one of the best songs) the lead single he talks about all the things like fancy cars and drugs have made him incapable of loving anyone that he really does want someone to marry but all they want to do is use him for his fame so he has to be heartless. In “Faith” he worried about dying alone but is also struggling with his faith because of his addiction to partying/drugs/hedonism it is like him losing his faith like in REM’s “Losing my Religion” that the act of getting high is like losing your faith.
The album continues with more about his relationship with his exes like in “In Your Eyes”(one of the best songs) that he can tell she is cheating on him by looking at her but he is trying to be positive about it by ignoring it, he is just vulnerable and wants to be loved. Same for “Save your Tears” (one of the catchier songs on the album) he isn’t interested in loving her again but will always be there for her because he screwed that relationship but his other ex-girlfriend used him. He realizes it’s too late to get back with the ex-girlfriend he hurt which is why in the next song “Repeat After me” he is repeating to her that she still loves him not the other guy by trying to convince her to come back to him. “After Hours” the third single(longest song) is an apology letter about failed dating and fighting his mortality again.
The final track “Until I Bleed Out” is a good way to end the album/his journey of making the album/the story he is telling by saying he has nothing left that all he wants to do is be sober from drugs/women and not worried about the fame/wealth/love. Overall this a good edition to his discography as one of the best singers/songwriters/performers of his generation with no bad songs and it is filled with memorable songs that are catchy.