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Monday, January 24, 2022 • The Daily Beacon
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Beacon Beats: The Weeknd’s ‘Dawn FM’ brings new flare to old themes MADELYN MUSCHEK City News Editor
Courtesy of Spotify
In the midst of tour dates being canceled and bands breaking up, it seems that today’s top artists haven’t slowed down, including The Weeknd. Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, released his most recent album, “Dawn
FM” on Jan. 7. “Dawn FM” was one of the most anticipated releases over winter break. This 16-song album comes almost two years after his last album, “After Hours,” one of his most successful projects. Last year, “After Hours” won the “Top R&B Album” at the Billboard Music Awards, and “Blinding Lights,” the album’s lead single, won three awards, including “Top R&B Song.” The Weeknd also performed the Super Bowl halftime show last year. The Weeknd was also a major contributor to Kanye West’s most recent album, “DONDA,” for which he won multiple awards as well. So, following the significant success he has had in the past couple of years, does “Dawn FM” live up to expectations? The album begins with one of its most interesting aspects, a feature by Jim Carrey. In the first song – which is also the title track – Carrey’s voice narrates an introduction to the album, which was also released on The Weeknd’s Twitter. Carrey’s introduction frames the album as a radio station experience titled “Dawn FM,” a creative way to give listeners a frame of mind in which to perceive the album. “Take My Breath,” the fourth song on “Dawn FM,” was released last year as a lead single. This song, like much of the other
pop-ish songs on the album, feels very 80’s synth-pop with heavy keyboard and electronic influences. Staying true to his roots, The Weeknd focuses on sexual references and passion in this song, as well as in its music video. Partially released on Instagram, “Is There Someone Else?” is a song that’s introspective and retrospective as The Weeknd questions his place in a love interest’s life, and its electronic rhythm fits in with the rest of the album, already one of the most popular songs on “Dawn FM.” The collaboration that stands out the most on the album is Tyler, The Creator’s feature on “Here We Go… Again.” This song focuses on success and new love and leans into electronic R&B, slow, simple and controlled. “Dawn FM” ends with “Phantom Regret by Jim,” an eerie and robotic monologue by Jim Carrey, which encourages listeners to reflect as Carrey rhymes. He talks about life, death and Heaven, considering the meaning of it all. It’s haunting but hypnotizing. “May peace be with you” is the last line of “Dawn FM.” An interesting aspect of “Dawn FM” is that many of the songs lead into each other with seamless transitions, such as with “How Do I Make You Love Me?” to “Take My Breath” and from “Is There Someone Else?”
to “Starry Eyes.” This style is not as widely seen in albums today and reinforces the idea of the album as a radio station playing songs continuously. It seems that over the course of his career, The Weeknd has ventured more and more into pop, and in both his last album and in this one, he experiments with synth and electronic beats rather than the melodic rhythm of his earlier work, which is much more R&B. As we reflect on this album, we must ask if this movement towards pop feels genuine to The Weeknd’s sound as an artist, or if it feels like a version of The Weeknd that isn’t true to our perception of his discography. Though the sound of this album feels different than his older music, much of the themes are the same – passion, desire, success, wealth, retrospection, possession, physical sensation and dreams. Overall, “Dawn FM” is a project in which The Weeknd expands his sound and experiments with new mediums. There are great songs within, but as a whole, the album doesn’t have the kind of strength that we saw on “After Hours.” The magnitude of his previous work is hard to beat, but this album is a different, interesting step for Abel.
