Abel Tesfaye, known to fans across the world as The Weeknd, closed a chapter in his illustrious music career with his sixth studio album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” The album serves as the conclusion to another famous trilogy by The Weeknd, preceded by “After Hours” and “Dawn FM.” Tesfaye references his album “Trilogy,” which featured remasters and remixes of a previous trilogy of mixtapes he released in 2011. In 2023, he announced that he would be retiring his stage name following the release of “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” ending his time as “The Weeknd” — he will continue to release music under his birth name, Abel Tesfaye.
While Tesfaye has been on fire recently due to “Timeless,” his heavily teased single with Playboi Carti, “Hurry Up Tomorrow” presents a vibe that deviates from the mainstream sound. Very similar to “After Hours” and some of his other previous works, this project is a mashup of pop and R&B with a dash of hip-hop. Tesfaye’s music is characterized by sleek, almost techno, high-tempo beats mixed with an incredible range of vocals. “Open Hearts,” which he performed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the night before the release of “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” sounds like a dance song from the future.
Tesfaye experiments with music of different cultures and styles throughout “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” “São Paulo,” the fourth track on the album, is mostly sung in Portuguese and features Brazilian singer Anitta. Tesfaye pairs his own up-tempo beats and overly sexual lyrics with a certain Brazilian funkiness on this track. “São Paulo” transitions seamlessly into the interlude “Until We’re Skin & Bones” — to the point where the beat doesn’t change until halfway through the track. Smaller details like this add an element of continuity and story to the album listening experience. Tesfaye reestablishes himself as more than just a singer, reminding us that he is an artist.
Tesfaye’s blending of his styles is easily seen through his features. Aside from the uber-popular “Timeless” with Carti, The Weeknd uses vocals from Future, Travis Scott and Lana Del Rey, each helping to manufacture a different vibe. “Enjoy the Show” includes an “Hndrxx”-esque verse from Future with both he and Tesfaye tapping into their older styles for this song. Tesfaye dreamily serenades the listener while you can feel the strong bass behind the beat more than you can hear it. On “The Abyss,” a smooth and soft verse from Lana Del Rey provides a nice break from the techno-bop beats that fill most of the album. Similar to Future’s verse, Travis Scott taps into his older, trap style for his vocals on “Reflections Laughing.” His deep, autotuned vocals crescendo as the beat comes back in towards the end of the song. I only wish he had a longer verse, as it felt like a bit of a throwaway 16-bar feature given to Scott.
Mike Dean, a longtime collaborator with Tesfaye, handled most of the production for “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” in addition to Tesfaye. Dean, a legendary producer, has worked with artists like Kanye West, Jay-Z and Frank Ocean over his 30-plus-year career in music. He’s produced multiple songs for Tesfaye, like “Double Fantasy” with Future and “Popular” with Playboi Carti, but only worked on one of his other projects — Tesfaye’s 2015 album, “Beauty Behind the Madness.” Metro Boomin, another frequent collaborator with the Weeknd, worked on three songs for “Hurry Up Tomorrow” — “Cry for Me,” “Given Up on Me” and “The Abyss.” I might just be a production nut, but I feel Tesfaye and his producers did an incredible job with the mixing for the album.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow” feels like a fitting conclusion to Tesfaye’s time as “The Weeknd.” I liked the album as a whole, but I feel like it doesn’t quite stand up to an album like “After Hours,” akin to how SZA’s “SOS Deluxe: LANA” felt more like a follow-up than it did its own project. One of my personal problems with long albums like this, 1 hour and 24 minutes in length, is that the beats start to all sound the same after a while. When an artist releases a large amount of music without dropping too much since their last album, the songs all seem to fit a certain mold. One thing I wish we got from “The Weeknd” on this album is a little more variation in the track composition.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow” puts a bow on his music career so far while opening the door to Tesfaye’s next chapter. He recently announced his “After Hours til Dawn” tour, which kicks off on May 9 with Playboi Carti and special guest Mike Dean. The tour touches down in Philadelphia on July 30 at Lincoln Financial Field.