After Hours

The Weeknd Album: After Hours  

Title: After Hours  

Singer: The Weeknd  

Production Company: Republic Records  

Copyright: 2020  

Genre: R&B, Pop 

Awards or Honors: Songs on the album like Heartless and Blinding Lights reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Number 1 on the Spotify Global Top 50. As of October 2020, Blinding Lights still sits at Number 7 of the Spotify Global Top 50, with a little over 3.4 million daily plays after being released in early 2020.    

Album Summary: After Hours is the 6th album from The Weeknd, features 14 songs on the track and is 56 minutes. The Weeknd also released a deluxe album in 2020 with an extra three songs. After Hours is a psychedelic R&B album that chronicles heartaches, regrets, and relationships in sometimes dark and fatalistic tones. Topics like sex, drugs, relationships are themes throughout the album. The first few songs are more relaxed and have mellow beats, while the middle part of the album features more up-tempo songs like Heartless, Faith, and Blinding Lights. The final songs have a slow, dreamlike quality. The Los Angeles area seems to be one of the central locations of both production and where the song’s events occur. The Weeknd is the only credited artist on all the song tracks, with no other artists’ appearances. Songs like Heartless, After Hours, and Blinding Lights have become popular global hits.   

Artist Background: The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, is a Canadian singer from Toronto. He was born to Ethiopian immigrants. He currently lives in Hidden Hills in the Los Angeles area and previously lived in Beverly Hills. He has been making music since he was a young teenager. He released his first album in 2010 and has become one of the world’s biggest music acts. He has two Doberman pinscher puppies. He has been described as someone who is private and prefers to keep his personal life and relationships to himself.   

His albums include Trilogy, Kiss Land, Beauty Beyond the Madness, Starboy My Dear Melancholy, and his 2020 album After Hours. He has described himself as someone who must feel his music and wants it to reflect his current mood and experiences. He has said in the past that he will not perform or release something if he does not truly feel it.   

Critical Evaluation: After Hours is a wonderfully produced album. It provides a mix of hits and slow R&B songs that will appeal to different people. The songs flow well, with the songs starting slow and then picking up in the middle before ending in a long, wistful tone that becomes one of the main themes of the album. The beats are well-produced and feature 80’s-style beats and an 80s-sounding synthesizer that adds to the album. The sound quality is excellent and melds together many different beats and instruments. There is a clear tone and style to the album that includes regret, wistfulness, and coping with the end of a relationship. These darker themes are not part of traditional pop songs but are more of a true emotional portrait of The Weeknd.  

Creative Use: For this library program, I would want to bring in a music producer or beatmaker to talk to teens about what it takes to create an album like this and what goes into making a song. The library would bring in the music producer or beatmaker to teach teens about the music industry and the technical aspects to make beats and songs. Many teens are interested in getting into the music industry or producing music but lack the contacts or the knowledge of getting started and beginning a career. A guest can talk about a great album like After Hours and provide help, guidance, and answer questions for interested teenagers.   

Speed Talk: After Hours is a dark and seductive album that features new music and stories from The Weeknd. Many of the issues touch on relationships, sex, money, and loneliness as The Weeknd reflects on his life and relationships. Listeners will love hits like Blinding Lights and Heartless, but his soul-searching tracks will also haunt and give a new meaning to heartbreak and relationships.    

Potential Challenges: Potential challenges to the album are possible, but there are none at this point. Potential challenges would be for sexual content, mentions of drugs and alcohol, and some swearing.   

Reason for Inclusion: I included this album because it is a popular album that has wide-spread fans across all age groups and demographics. I also think this is an album that lots of teenagers listen to. It also deals with a lot of issues that teenagers might face like drug use, alcohol, a range of feelings, sex, and relationships. Having an outlet and release where teens can feel who they want about these issues by listening to music is important.   

Brown, Kara. (2018, May 17). The Weeknd on Fame, Love and ‘Melancholy’. Time. https://time.com/collection-post/5277969/the-weeknd-next-generation-leaders/