Abel Makkonen Tesfaye a.k.a ‘The Weeknd’ dropped his album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” on Jan. 31. This is Tesfaye’s last album and has been a long time coming for his fans, me included. Tesfaye has grown a lot throughout his music career. His first album, “House of Ballons” wasn’t as popular when it was first released compared to its growing popularity. While “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is an overall good album, nothing will compare to his older albums and songs.
This album has 22 songs, each almost 90 minutes long. Two of those are transition songs. 22 songs is a lot for an album, and I think he should have cut it down to 12. I could easily pick my top 12 and leave the rest out. However, the two transition songs, “I Can’t F*cking Sing” and “Until We’re Skin and Bones” are necessary for the songs they lead into, giving them more energy.
Tesfaye does have featured singers on this album, the most popular include Lana del Ray, Travis Scott and Playboi Carti. The song featuring Carti is “Timeless,” released as a single before the album. In the songs Scott and Ray are featured in, they are heard singing for about 45 seconds. He should have had them sing a lot longer rather than have them say a couple of verses. It would have made the whole album better overall.
The vibe of this album is better than it is bad. It brings the energy of his older albums, which I think was the right approach. As I said, his older albums have been rediscovered by the new generation (Gen Z) over the years. I love his older albums, so incorporating the vibes of his older albums into his last album brought his whole music career together.
I have seven songs on this album that I like, two of those songs have already been released, but he changed them a bit in this album. My overall favorite song is “Baptized in Fear.” This song portrays a near-death experience and the quest for redemption. I have never experienced this, but this isn’t the reason this is my favorite on the album. All of the vocals and the tone of his voice in this song are perfect. This is one of the songs on the album that is reminiscent of his older albums. Another one of my favorites on this album is “Cry For Me.”
Overall, I give this album a 6.5/10. From listening to this album over and over again, I caught myself skipping past the unnecessary songs. I normally like all of Tesfaye’s songs on his albums, but more than half were just not as enjoyable. To make this a better album, I think he should have had more intense songs or ones that give off that energy. It’s boring to have the same tone in each song on an album, and that is what “Hurry Up Tomorrow” was giving.
