On Friday January 31 at midnight, Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, released his new album “Hurry Up Tomorrow”, marking his sixth and final studio album. It includes 22 songs and features many artists such as Justice, Anitta, Travis Scott, Florence + The Machine, Future, Playboi Carti, Giorgio Moroder and Lana Del Rey. The XO artist announced this as his last album in efforts to end his career of pop-singing and even displayed “The End Is Near” on numerous billboards. According to Bianca Betancourt from Harper’s Bazaar, the album was inspired from one of Tesfaye’s concerts where he lost his voice and began to consider what would happen if he lost it all. JagWire reporter Abby Stidham-Ebberts reviews and shares her thoughts on each song from “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”
Hurry Up Tomorrow
Wake Me Up (feat. Justice)
As the first track on the album, this song makes a great intro. At first, I thought it sounded creepy and mysterious like a song that would play in a suspenseful movie. However, after the intro of the song, it falls into a “Thriller”-type beat which makes it sound fun and carefree.
One of my favorites on the album, "Cry For Me", is a song about the aftermath of a relationship that was full of unreciprocated love. In the chorus, he sings “End of time with you, now we're strangers/And I hope that you still cry for me like I cry for you.” The song displays how he longs for a committed relationship with the same feelings toward each other. The beginning of the song sounds so good with the heavy bass. The beat drops and explosiveness throughout the song are reasons why the song is so good.
This track is a short clip from one of The Weeknd’s concerts when he lost his voice and tried to yell to the crowd that he couldn’t sing. Since the song is only 12 seconds long, I thought that he shouldn’t have added it in the album. That was until I heard how good of a transition it made into the next song on the album “São Paulo.” The two songs blend seamlessly together making it pleasing to listen to.
After a smooth transition from “I Can’t F***ing Sing,” this song opened with Anitta singing and had a funky Brazilian rhythm that also played throughout The Weeknd’s part. However, towards the middle of the song it began sounding very chaotic when Anitta sang over the music. After that, The Weeknd comes in and delivers a nice melody which bridges over to Anitta’s next part. Overall though, this song is pretty good and is a song I would listen to.
This is another shorter track on the album, lasting 22 seconds. I was not expecting to like this but after listening to it a few times, I actually ended up really liking it. The mix of different sounds make it suspenseful and futuristic, like I’m in a time warp. It doesn’t transition into the next song on the album which was a missed opportunity, but I think it was a good idea to keep on the album.
I really liked this song. After reading the lyrics, it sounded a bit creepy but The Weeknd told the story perfectly. The intro begins with a steady beat leading into The Weeknd’s part. He sings “Figure in the corner I can't quite see/I just know the shadow's staring at me.” As he transitions to the main part, he repeats “It gets closer, it gets closer, it gets closer now/Figure in the corner laughing at me/Water fill my lungs, vision blurry/
Heartbeat slower, heartbeat slower, heartbeat slower.” I really enjoyed this song and will totally be adding it to my playlist.
This was not anything new to me after hearing the other songs on the album. It sounded too familiar and very similar to many of The Weeknd’s other songs that it wasn’t that remarkable to me.
The song is only a minute and 36 seconds long and it repeated the same tune throughout the whole song. It made it extremely boring and there were so many background noises that it made the song sound messy. I feel like this song could have delivered more than it did which left me disappointed.
Reflections Laughing (feat. Travis Scott, Florence + The Machine)
“Reflection Laughing” Features two well-known artists, Travis Scott and Florence + the Machine. This song sounded great with the deep bass in the background. It was smooth and nothing felt out of place. I really liked Travis Scott’s feature; however, I noticed Florence + The Machine was only used for background vocals. I feel like she could have added so much more to the song if she had a bigger part.
Enjoy The Show (feat. Future)
This was a good addition to the album and The Weeknd and Future really work well together. I felt like the beginning of the song sounded similar to “should’ve wore a bonnet” by 21 Savage with the high pitched voices and beat. Overall, I really liked this song and Future made a great feature.
I’ve actually listened to this a lot and it’s already on my playlist. The claps and synths blend in together into such an amazing production. In the middle of the song, it gets really slow and calm. This made it different from the other songs on the album and I liked it.
I Can't Wait To Get There
I feel like this was something different for The Weeknd. The voices in the background of the song were soothing and sounded good with his voice. Overall, this song wasn’t my favorite but it was good.
Timeless (feat. Playboi Carti)
Before The Weeknd released his album, he released this song as a single. I really liked the song and I even played it at all my swim meets to get in the zone. However, I unfortunately overplayed the song and now I don’t like it as much as I used to. I still listen to the song almost everyday and I think it is perfect for any occasion whether it’s being played to boost energy or just as background music. The way The Weeknd’s voice comes into the song after Playboi Carti’s part is mesmerizing and ties the whole song together.
The whole song was pretty good but I felt like there was something missing and there could’ve been more to the song.
The Weeknd does an amazing job of telling a story with the lyrics in this song. He delivers it in such a powerful way. The synth and instrumentals really help tie this song together and are one of the reasons I really liked this song.
Big Sleep (feat. Giorgio Moroder)
This song was so good. With the help of Giorgio Moroder’s electronic mastery, they put together an amazing song. The Weeknd sings about regret and how he longs for redemption. I listened to this song at least three times because it sounds so good. It is for sure one of my favorites on the album.
After doing some research on this song, I realized it was about how The Weeknd is asking for forgiveness from God. I liked how emotional the song was and how powerful the lyrics are as he sings about his regrets from the past and how he prays for mercy. He says “Every time I lost my way, I lost my faith in you/Fightin' my temptations, put my body through abuse.” He explains how giving into temptation was easy but finding faith in God was hard after countless mistakes on his own part.
I like this song a lot because it was really catchy and easy to learn. It's about how The Weeknd just wants to live life like a regular person and enjoy the simple things in life.
The Abyss (Feat. Lana Del Ray)
My first thought of the song was how good the piano was at the beginning. In all, I loved the song so much. It sounded like it would make an outstanding outro to the album. I also liked how suspenseful it was, like it could be in a movie. Lana Del Rey was the feature in this song and her vocals were perfect. She absolutely completed this song. Every part she sang was beautiful. This was definitely one of my top favorites on the album.
There wasn’t that much to the song in my opinion. I didn’t like how the last minute of the song was just The Weeknd talking. I think this song might have some potential but I feel like it was too far down on the album for people to even notice it.
I love how mysterious and dark this song sounds. When The Weeknd sings “The crowd will scream, the crowd will scream my name/Even when the world wants me to fail.” The sound of his crowd cheering actually plays in the background which I think is so cool. It’s not one of my favorites but it’s still really good.
The melancholy feeling of this song feels so perfect for his last song ever. The Weeknd sings about how much regret he feels for his choices in life and asks God for forgiveness. He sings “So I sing Heaven after love/I want heaven when I die/I want to change/I want the pain no more.” Those lyrics are so powerful and relatable and I think this will be a song that people feel like they are able to connect to. This song also transitions into “High For This,” the first track of his first debut mixtape, House of Balloons. This was super creative considering “Hurry Up Tomorrow” was his last studio album.
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