Honorable Mention #4: The Weeknd - House of Balloons

Anonymity is a hard thing to come by. But it is possible. Ask Abel Tesfaye, otherwise known as The Weeknd, and you'll find a man who relishes his obscurity, all the while making us even more curious about the man. But does the shroud of mystery surrounding The Weeknd prove to be anything other than smoke to obscure a record more indebted to hype than substance? Thankfully, in this instance, after all the hype has left and the smoke has billowed away, the record we're left with stands just fine on its own.

The Weeknd's debut/mixtape, is Tesfaye's take on modern R&B, something that indie culture has curiously enamored itself with these past couple of years. Artists like How To Dress Well and The-Dream, along with Drake and others, have proven that despite its late 80's-early 90's synth beat-fetishism (this would be an insult), R&B can, given the right set of circumstances, move past its club and womanizing ways to develop deeper more rewarding relationships with the listener. As is the case concerning the excesses of mainstream R&B, there is a fine line between earnest and caricature. The Weeknd exaggerates these same excesses until they take on absurdist proportions. The sexual predator/conquest undertones of R&B are magnified until you feel slightly uncomfortable with the subtle sexual manipulation from Tesfaye; you don't feel particularly safe in the same room with him. It's an uneasy feeling. And one that only intensifies with the passing of these tracks. From the opener "High For This", with its gentle come-ons and insistently manipulative praise, to the coked-out malaise of "Happy House/Glass Table Girls", House of Balloons creates an oddly compelling look at sexual frustrations under the guise of sexual prowess. Or I could be reading too much into this and all he wants is a really good lay.  Either way, with the continuation of this self-styled trilogy, including Thursday and the yet-to-be-released Echoes Of Silence, it'll be interesting to see how Tesfaye continues to work within this seemingly limiting genre to create songs that owe a great deal to the throw-away R&B that dominated the early 90's and hear him twist them until the songs/the listener squirm and surrender to his inappropriate suggestions.

Tracklisting:

01. High For This
02. What You Need
03. Happy House / Glass Table Girls (listen to the mp3 below)
04. The Morning
05. Wicked Games
06. The Party & the After Party
07. Coming Down
08. Loft Music
09. The Knowing