The Weekend has always delivered a cohesive mix of genres in his music typically combining the likes of R&B, soul, dance, and pop. Here he is adding even more into the mix with funk, 80s inspired tunes, modulated vocals, and Jim Carrey as the radio announcer throughout the album. “Dawn FM” has a loose concept — “purgatory,” he said. “I imagined being stuck in gridlock traffic in a tunnel, and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and we’re all just waiting for our turn, and while we’re waiting there’s a radio station playing: 103.5 Dawn-FM, and the radio DJ is guiding you through the painless transition into the light.”
The beginning of the album is very upbeat in the beginning, slows down in the middle and mid-tempo towards the end. Weeknd told journalists earlier this week that he’d begun writing an album earlier in lockdown, but it was “too dark and way too sad,” so he created one that is “more fantasy and more of an escape.” It resulted in a very literal dark/light ethereal soundscape.
Must Listen: “Gasoline”, “Take My Breath”, “Sacrifice”, “How Do I Make You Love Me?”
SOUNDS: Michael Jackson, Yaz, and the Weeknd
FEELS: warm and fuzzy