Review: The Weeknd - Balloons
This free-to-download mixtape by Toronto-based musician Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, has garnered comparisons to both recent acclaimed rapper Drake and the not-unjustifiably ubiquitous the xx. Which, as reference points, aren’t as disparate as you may initially think.
The xx have commented on the mid-90s R&B influence on their music, going as far as to cover Aailyah’s “Hot Like Fire.” Drake’s Thank Me Later belied the sound and lyrical topics of his hip-hop peers, focusing on a downbeat, the sparse, and singing about love and self-examination.
Y’know, like the xx.
The Weeknd offer all these things and more; the mixtape is predominantly downbeat, ballads sung in Tesfaye’s syrupy sweet voice over slight drumbeats, organs and low-slung guitars (which also call to mind indie darlings Beach House, come to think of it).
Nearly all the songs are love songs, but less the usual R&B romantic croons, and more the initial racing thoughts you get entering your mind as a good-looking girl enters the room at the party.
So it makes sense that the rest of the songs sound more like the aftermath of the party — unclear as to whether our protagonist “got” the girl — and sound it, too, as the musical side of the album does veer between the woozy and the relaxingly ambient.
Not that Balloons has any songs you could play your Mum. Cos Tesfaye does, sometimes unexpectedly, with that voice and music, have a bit of a potty mouth. This element of surprise and danger is what keeps you on your toes as you otherwise float, undisturbed, through a chilled-out collection of tracks.
If this is just a mixtape, who knows how a “proper” album might sound?
8.5/10
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Notes
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