Fame is a monster that sporadically chooses who it affects. Remaining unpredictable, those that do happen to become famous often do not see it coming; each person handling their fame in their own way. One of these many people include Abel Tesfaye, who is better known by his professional alias The Weeknd. His realization of this fame takes center stage in the title track, ‘Starboy’, where he thoroughly describes his conflicting emotions towards his newfound fame. Aside from that, while the Starboy album briefly explores the path that brought him to where he is now, it primarily details the evolving relationship between The Weeknd and a woman. Ultimately, coinciding with his haircut, the album marks the start of a new era for The Weeknd.
The titular track, ‘Starboy’, not only kicks off this era, but it kicks off the album as well. Like I mentioned prior, The Weeknd talks about his fame and lists off what he has received from it. However, he does so with an emotional disconnect in his vocal performance; indicating that he is not as happy as he should be, even with his many cars. The beat, produced by the electronic duo Daft Punk, compliments The Weeknd’s vocals with a moody and somber tone that persists throughout the whole song. While track lyrically looks like yet another stereotypical brag song on the surface, I cannot help but think that beneath the exterior, that there are many more layers of depth to the song thanks once again to the production and the vocal performance; making it my second favorite song off the album.
My favorite song off the album, though, has to be ‘False Alarm’, an R&B song that details the destructive lifestyle of the woman that The Weeknd cannot help but be drawn to. While he may love her, The Weeknd is knowledgeable enough to see that not only is he far from the only recipient of the love she gives, but that her love has a sole motive to it: money. Since relationships prove to be finite and fleeting in her eyes, the woman finds herself attached to objects such as dollar bills and diamonds, which manage to ease her pain with the very simple fact that they’ll always be there for her in the long run. Even if all the chorus consists of is one line repeated six times over, it is still able to create a catchy sense of urgency between that repetition and the desperate wails of The Weeknd that are prominent in the background.
Unfortunately, not all of the songs on the album have such lyrical dexterity. Most noteworthy for this is ‘Rockin’, a house song that is about an exciting, no-strings-attached relationship that revolves around having fun between him and the aforementioned woman. Ironically enough, the lyrics of the song manage to be boring and safe; opting to make a generic reference to ecstasy in the chorus that is often used in many other songs, for example. While the beat itself is rather catchy, that itself does not equate to it being great. ‘Rockin’ ultimately manages to be … just okay, which is more than I can say for ‘All I Know’.
I will just say it now: I am not a Future fan. His vocals are always so … flat; almost never containing any emotion. And while I get that may be a draw for some people, I cannot find myself enjoying most of his work. So, ‘All I Know’ and even ‘Six Feet Under’, another song that features Future’s vocals on the album, already had an uphill battle to fight in order to get me to like it. However, while I find humming along to the admittedly catchy chorus of ‘Six Feet Under’ and only tolerating the verses, I am not a fan of ‘All I Know’. While The Weeknd’s verses, which address the now-nervous woman about breaking his heartbreaker stigma, are fine here, Future’s verse on the song manage to be incredibly generic. I feel as though I have heard the same spiel about guns and rotating between women before in many other songs.
Thankfully, there is a rather good rap collaboration on the album, which is ‘Sidewalks’ featuring Kendrick Lamar. This is the song that I had mentioned earlier on that details the path that brought not only The Weeknd, but Kendrick as well, to their current place in life. Despite both growing up in volatile and violent cities, The Weeknd and Kendrick are thankful of the environment and how it shaped them. Overall, the song manages to be a nice reflection of the past and even manages to have what is the best Kendrick guest verse in a fair while. I will say, though, his good performance here does not completely make up for his lackluster guest verses on ‘The Greatest’ and ‘Don’t Wanna Know’ by Sia and Maroon 5 respectively.
In the end, I feel as though the album is … okay. And this is primarily due to an issue I have with Starboy that I have yet to elaborate on: it feels overly long. Now, this is a seemingly odd statement, because in comparison to the Weeknd’s previous album, Beauty Behind the Madness, Starboy is only three minutes longer. However, what is worthy to note is that there are four more songs - three if you do not count the interlude - songs in Starboy than Beauty Behind the Madness. There just seems to be a fair amount of filler songs such as ‘Rockin’, ‘All I Know’, and ‘Attention’ that really bore me. On the other hand, there are good songs on this album like ‘False Alarm’, ‘Starboy’, and ‘I Feel It Coming’ among a few others. This album feels like a mixed bag for me due to there being a fair amount of bad songs alongside the good songs, not to mention other songs such as ‘Party Monster’, ‘True Colors’, and ‘Secrets’ that I find alright. While I recommend giving the album a listen, as I am sure that there will be standout songs that people can enjoy, do not expect every one of them to be a hit.
Image Courtesy of bruzz.be