There’s no better way to sum up the Weeknd than to defer to Abel Tesfaye himself, who reveals on the Kanye West-produced “Tell Your Friends” that he’s the guy “with the hair/Singing ’bout popping pills, fucking bitches, living life so trill.” That line serves as the hedonistic mission statement for the 25-year-old crooner, who’s spent his entire career lyrically dwelling in the darkest corners of sex and substance abuse. While it’s an unsettling combination, it’s working: He’s the first artist to hold the top three slots on Billboard’s Hot R&B chart and now headlines festivals like Lollapalooza.
With his second official album, “Beauty Behind the Madness,” Tesfaye yet again fails to prove he’s the real deal. Since his major label debut, “Kiss Land,” couldn’t seamlessly transition him from alt-darling auteur of brooding beats to a mainstream-ready pop sound, for this effort he linked up with hitmakers such as Max Martin (Backstreet Boys), Lana Del Rey and Peter Svensson (of the Cardigans), among others. And when he goes full pop, it’s arguably the best music of his career, with Tesfaye still keeping his aggressive, pleasure-seeking persona intact despite the radio-friendly sheen. Smash hit “Can’t Feel My Face,” an addiction ode disguised as a love song that currently sits at No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart, is his most instantly palatable song yet thanks to its pulsating EDM throb and tight chorus. The sensual “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey),” on the other hand, highlights the most fitting combination ever of an artist and a movie.
Then there’s “The Hills,” currently No. 5 on the chart, which says, “I only call you when it’s half-past five” and “I just fucked two bitches before I saw you.” While that may be off-putting, it’s Tesfaye’s M.O. What’s really off-putting, though, is the filler and pandering. Ed Sheeran shows up for some reason, adding coffee-shop bard cheese to lowlight “Dark Times.” Elsewhere, “Shameless” has acoustic guitar chords straight out of a Michelle Branch song before it inexplicably changes to bizarre, Van Halen-style shredding. Moreover, “In the Night” is basically just the run-of-the-mill Michael Jackson tribute we’ve seen throughout his discography. Too often on the album, like on “Often,” conveniently, Tesfaye endlessly repeats the song’s title, which makes for a listening experience that’s annoying rather than hypnotic (especially with the weird, pointed pronunciation of the word).
For a guy known to make late-night encounters as unsexy as possible (like “Trust me girl, you wanna be high for this” on his early “House of Balloons” mixtape), there isn’t much of an effort to redeem his drugged-out Lothario persona. Tesfaye, as weird as he gets, has become a superstar for solely dealing in lust, pleasure and being completely unapologetic about it, leaving listeners to decide if it’s arousing or creepy. But if he can make the cohesive, fully-formed album that “Beauty Behind the Madness” only hints at, his screw-it-all, destructive attitude won’t seem so pointless.
2 stars (out of four)
In concert: Nov. 6 at United Center
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