Looking into The Weeknd’s current profile, with a slew of blockbuster singles and albums, over 120 million monthly listeners on Spotify, appearances on TV shows, and headlining a Super Bowl, it is easy to forget how he started it all. In fact, it seems unfathomable that the man behind one of the most hotly anticipated albums of this year was once an almost faceless and nameless musical enigma—a cult act with millions of faithful fans who passionately consumed and dissected the trio of excellent mixtapes “House Of Balloons,” “Thursday” and “Echoes Of Silence” he dropped in 2011.

Over the course of the last 14 years, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye has carved out a niche in the dark/alternative R&B and has branched out of it into sounds of 80s synthpop and house music, without losing an ounce of lyrical darkness and nihilism. He explores love, sexuality, debauchery and escapism through excesses. As per his accounts, “Hurry Up Tomorrow” marks the end of a trilogy, that started with “After Hours” (2020) and “Dawn FM” (2022). HUT might be his final album as The Weeknd. Now, we don’t know how true that will be—if this is the final album under the moniker of “The Weeknd”—or if Abel would retire from recording new stuff. Regardless of that, the expectations associated with HUT were huge especially since its predecessors were amazing albums that were not only immaculately crafted and expertly executed, but propelled Abel to the upper echelons of music royalty. For HUT, anything short of spectacular would have been somewhat of a disappointment. No one knows it better than Abel himself. 

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: HUT is an amazingly produced album. That may not be a surprise considering Abel’s discography and the host of producing wizards associated with this album—the roster includes Mike Dean, Pharrell, Metro Boomin, Justice, Max Martin and none less than THE Giorgio Moroder. However, the sense of continuity and cohesion in the tracklist, replete with interludes and audio snippets and some impeccable transitions, showcase the amount of thought that went into crafting this 84-minute-long behemoth of a record. For most pop albums, such a runtime would have been an exhausting and self-indulgent ploy to bump up streaming numbers. Fortunately, Abel Tesfaye is not like most pop artists, and HUT is absolute proof that sometimes, too much of a good thing is a good thing!

The sense of impending death surrounds this album and literally opens the album (“All I have is my legacy/ I been losing my memory/ No afterlife”)—with “Wake Me Up,” a throbbing tune reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” “Cry For Me” stirs the pot of loss and dread like the best The Weeknd songs do (“And I hope you cry for me like I cry for you”). I was initially lukewarm on “São Paulo,” featuring the Brazilian pop sensation Anitta. However, hearing it in the context of the album, I would say it has grown on me a lot. “Baptized In Fear” is a shimmering ballad, where Abel explores how he is “baptized” in the water of fear and regrets. The lyrics here are a bit too simplistic but the song is a winner from a melodic standpoint. The song leads into “Open Hearts,” an absolute banger of a song, complete with a driving bass lick and twinkling 80s synths, exploring themes of healing from heartbreak and learning to love again. Travis Scott and Florence + The Machine appear on the haunting “Reflections Laughing,” where Abel croons about his warped romantic vulnerabilities and isolation (“Don’t you let me down/ If you let me drown/ I’ll die in your arms again”).

However, some of the collabs, particularly with Future (“Enjoy The Show”) and Playboi Carti (“Timeless”) are not nearly as captivating as the other songs here. “Given Up On Me” feels like a warm nocturnal blanket with its enveloping production and lyrics exploring fatal addiction to alcohol or women, interspersed with some weirdly uplifting audio snippets (something straight of Kanye West playbook), and a mid-song change up in direction. The influence of Michael Jackson is especially prominent on the beautiful “I Can’t Wait To Get There,” where Abel aims to leave behind all ugliness that has been thrown at him and rise above his naysayers and enemies (“Now I can finish a sentence/ Now I’m articulate, baby/ And I enunciate, baby/ And I eviscerate my enemies and piss on they grave”)—the song is weirdly funny due to its warm and gorgeous synths juxtaposed with some pretty vitriolic lyricism.

“Niagara Falls” and “Take Me Back to LA” continue the run of 80s synthpop flavor that Abel has mastered by this time to full aplomb. “Big Sleep” features Giorgio Moroder and sounds ethereal and funereal at the same time (“Well, you used up your borrowed life/ And you wasted your borrowed time”) backed with some huge synth leads. “Drive” would scratch the itches of the fans, particularly of the trilogy and “Kiss Land.” “The Abyss” continues the streak of impeccable collaborations between The Weeknd with Lana Del Rey, and no number of words can describe the raw emotion behind this song (“Let me close my eyes with dignity/ Let’s end it all, the world’s not far behind”). Even in her short feature, Lana takes this song to some otherworldly territory. The album ends on a string of strong ballads, with “Red Terror” being a major highlight.

It is difficult to sum up this album, but all I can say is this: The Weeknd has outdone himself in delivering an album that sounds like a movie. What an incredible artist! What a stellar career!!