I’m not usually the type to review music, but something about this album made me do it. After Starboy back in 2016, I was set in terms of music from the Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye for a good long time. The then new “Starboy” sound was something my soul needed to fill its dark void at the time, and the features took the album even one step further for me. Starboy to this day remains one of my top albums of my life and probably will forever. When I found out this next album was a continuation of that same sound that stirred so much in me, I nearly died and the album couldn’t release fast enough. Abel released “Blinding Lights”, “In Your Eyes” and “Heartless” as singles, and also dropped the namesake of the album “After Hours” to keep us wanting more. I think I added these singles to every playlist I’ve made this year because it was all I had before March 20th.

In the eyes of the dedicated Weeknd fans, the “Starboy” sound comes from his 2016 relationships with Selena Gomez and Bella Hadid, and how their dynamics affected his life and choices. Both women are true stars, who have been wrapped up in Hollywood since birth, unlike Abel who was literally homeless before becoming the sensation he is today.  In both albums he talks about his life struggles, growing up in Toronto, and his battle with whether to give in to his bad habits because he’s been using his exes to fill the place of said vices.  In After Hours, he rekindled his relationship with Bella and they broke it off again igniting another round of “Starboy” music for all of us. While I don’t agree with his choices 100% of the time, Abel sings about real feelings I’m sure all of us have felt at some point in this album. There are no true features on this sequel album aside from various the beats, which is sort of a hint that he can still be “Starboy” on his own after all.

After Hours is 56 minutes long with 14 tracks, which is comparable to Starboy’s 1 hour and then some 18 track album. I have listened to every song many times and have been accumulating my notes on each song for days now. For anyone who might be triggered by things like Sex, Swearing, Depression, Drugs/Alcohol etc please be aware its going to be discussed a lot in this breakdown as Abel is very vocal about all of that.

To start off the album we have “Alone Again”, which eases you in the album beautifully, Abel’s softly singing into a softer beat that also has so much depth if you listen to it in your car or headphones.  The feeling you’d get from a church organ shaking you to the core is about the same as the bass under that melodic tune. When the beat drops, its almost like “Starboy” comes out to play and its really time to listen to the album, no more games. While there isn’t much content in this introductory song, Abel clues us in to how his perspective is looking at that moment. He places us in Las Vegas where he feels the most alive, he want’s to know how much it will cost him to light up his soul again seeing as Sin City is all about sex, money and drugs, all of which Abel struggles with when he’s alone. Further he needs to be reminded who and what he is and thats when the beat drops and he embraces his dark nature. Something that really stood out to me was when he says, “I don’t know if I can be alone again, I don’t know if I can sleep alone again”. As someone who has struggled tremendously with welcoming people into my heart and potentially having to push them out if they no longer fit what I need in life, I felt this truly.

After “Too Late”, Abel takes us to “Hardest to Love” which is one of my personal top 3 songs on the album because of how much it speaks to me and my personal experiences. I always say I’m a walking contradiction because of the particular ways I like things and do things; and the fun, bubbly beat of this song emulates my inner contradiction by having the saddest words over said bubbly beat. The first thing he basically says is, “You’re crying out behind the smiles, I can see right through the lies”, and if that wasn’t a slap to the face for how much this song was going to speak to me then I’m truly blind. I know his intention with saying that comes from a place of looking at that from a relationship perspective, but it’s fitting for life in general as well. I am a strong supporter of “fake it until you make it”, but I also know how heavy it feels to hear those words when the world is weighing on me, so I completely understand smiling while feeling like crying out. After that we jump into the chorus and hearing this part multiple times in the nearly 4 minutes is enough to ingrain the words into my brain forever. Abel says “but I’ve been the hardest to love, You’re trying to let me go, and I can see it, I can see it’, partner that with the opening line “You try with me so many times”, you can just push a button and I’ll cry at this point. As someone who’s been told time and time again how “high maintenance” I am, and after all the genuine life struggles I’ve endured that were out of my control, due to that I agree at times I am the hardest to love. I wonder often if I am crazy for needing or wanting certain things in life, and this song touches on those feelings I have. The next thing that stood out to me is when Abel, says “the house I bought is not a home, together we are so alone….”, and actually to say it only stood out to me would be a great disservice to this whole album. I’ve spent probably 17 of my nearly 22 years truly believing “home’ wasn’t a place because I unfortunately lacked that “safe space’ aspect when I was at home. Back then I’d say my books, music and my own thoughts were more of a home to me than the physical four walls I slept in at home. An unfortunate side effect of feeling that lack of safe space, I felt utterly alone 24/7, which led to a lot of these feelings Abel touches on.

To pick me up from my own dark thoughts from “Hardest to Love”, we fade into “Scared To Live”. This song has the sad sound I would’ve expected from the previous track, but it’s the more uplifting message of the two. The main takeaway for me of this song is “Don’t be scared to live again” just like the title says. I do so much overthinking day to day that I am scared to live, move forward or try again and this voices that for me. Abel talks about how things fell apart “right from the start”, and while I haven’t truly experienced that in a relationship I have in other parts of my life. Abel pays homage to Elton John and “Your Song” by sampling the “I hope you don’t mind” sound and lyrics when he says “I hope you know that, I hope you know that, I been praying you find yourself” towards the end, and man does it fit for this song. Until recently I, myself, didn’t think I needed to find myself again, and since I’ve started peeling the onion that is my soul/heart/being, I’ve realized how complacent and stuck I am with life. This beat has the same level of bass that pulls on your soul as “Alone Again” and takes over your whole being if you let it, while pushing you out of your own slump. Theres a moment where the beat faded away and Abel says “I should have made you my only, when it’s said and done”, and that thought has crossed my mind many times in life having met as many people as I have thus far in life. Way back in middle school, I experienced my first love and genuine heartbreak over a boy 3-4 years older than me, but man did my middle school heart want that boy forever. The fact that, that’s the only focus when Abel says it adds to the regret, the loss and the torn feelings one feels when they miss an opportunity like having someone in their life forever. To counter that Abel also says, “You always miss the chance to fall for someone new”, which signified for him to her that there just might be greener grass on the other side of the fence if she just ‘found herself’. Ultimately I think if she found herself all along they would have fallen apart from the start anyways. This song is top 3 as well, purely because I can’t refuse the call to move to it, this song will be one of my “always” songs that never gets old.  Having spent nearly 8 years of my life dancing before my injuries retired me, I long to dance and move to this song. I can just picture and feel how powerful of a Pas de Deux this would be on a dance floor/stage.

After picking apart Abel’s life in “Snowchild”, we end up in Southern California for “Escape From LA”. This is to be expected seeing as LA is one of the biggest hubs for music, modeling, television etc, but it’s more fitting for me since I was born and raised there. “Escape From LA”, title as is, is one of the biggest vibes I have ever seen. I absolutely escaped LA when I moved out at 18, that place forms you in a completely different way than anywhere else I’ve ever been and it’s so hard to rewire your brain out of that LA mentality. One of the BIG things about LA that he mentions throughout the song is how “this place is never what it seems”, and I couldn’t agree more. Abel sets the scene for us as they lay in bed, he says something about the men who try to come between him and Bella and how “they think your kindness is so weak”. As head lead/assistant manager right now I am working through being taken advantage of by my coworkers and that quote spoke volumes to me, and kinda was the wake up call I needed. If they think my being lenient it weak, then they get to deal with the strong consequence that comes from it, big mistake. He kinda taunts her for a minute in the next line and says, “But you just wanted my attention, You just wanted my affection, You got me tattooed on your mind, You just want me all the time”. As someone with a very playful spirit, I felt really drawn to that having felt that very feeling before. About a minute in Abel says “’cause when I’m on the liquor, I go crazy”, as a 21 year old who thoroughly partied for my birthday, I absolutely go crazy when I get to a certain stage in my drinking. I’m very fun, but sometimes I can be a bit much to handle.Skipping into the ending of the song the beat basically drops off to create a completely different atmosphere, and a white noise type of a lull. As the scene changes he vividly explains that no ones around and she just pulled up to his recording studio, she comes in, locks the door for him and after he ‘busts’ out his track in more ways than one. Afterwards, she cuts it and pops it for him to give to his production team for the album. However, to point out that they are no longer together, Abel says “she a cold-hearted bitch with no shame, but her throat too fire”, highlighting her sexual abilities vividly, but also saying how unfeeling, disconnected and remorseless she comes across. I watched Meamda Panda’s review on the album and I absolutely died listening to him live Tweet his reaction to this line, it was sooo funny.

Although this isn’t every song on the album, it’s a pretty deep dive into the lines that stuck out to me, scenes that painted bright visuals and moved me by the literal sound of the music. Every song on this album fades beautifully into the next, and you could switch any order of songs and they’d all mesh well together. I have made a complete Starboy and After Hours playlist for myself and all of you to enjoy. While I hope for Abel’s sake he never dates Bella Hadid again, I really wouldn’t mind the new music with the Starboy sound again. I hope his sound doesn’t change with time, but I can’t wait for new music from The Weeknd.