Got a Canadian friend sing like Michael Jackson…
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[5.12]
Scott Mildenhall: He’s literally not Michael Jackson. The box of tricks that was “Can’t Feel My Face” brought him a lot closer though, a masterclass in the fluidity this sorely lacks. The interplay there between lines, words and syllables — “both be beautiful”, for instance — was fine craft that set off the sparks running through it. While this has the same throb and intention of darkness, it ultimately gets a bit repetitive, as if he’s relying upon the chorus being the sledgehammer that it’s not.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Of course the song is set in a strip joint, a place with “dollar bills and tears falling down like rain.” The Michael Jackson influence, which I thought was overplayed by colleagues, is inescapable, as The Weeknd’s high end tries to sound aggrieved — but for whom, though? “She’s capable of anything,” and he doesn’t mean getting a college degree. The result is a new “Dirty Diana,” written and sung as if the male protagonist can’t believe he feels sad that the stripper is so flexible.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: Well, of course the Weeknd has covered MJ’s “Dirty Diana” — and “In the Night” not only holds much of the same menace, but it features The Weeknd doing his best vocal MJ, even more so than his dancing in the “Can’t Feel My Face” video. That said, this song’s about (surprise) a stripper who’s sad, but (actual surprise) for once is fairly free of Abel’s usual Madonna-whore complex regarding women. I like hearing The Weeknd work his upper register; it sounds like he’s straining, but in his case that’s a good thing.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: Yeah, the unfortunate problem about Abel giving up his “*snigger* Heheheheh, drugs and seeeex” cartoon luridness is that it demonstrates how he’s still rather hollow as a songwriter. The ping-ponging chorus outro is corny, and his MJ worship has become too affected a performance (where’s the Jermaine lawsuit against Abel’s unattural obsession? Lord knows he’s about as unsavory a character to throw into court in his own mind).
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Not the Benny Mardones cover I expected upon misreading the title (I mean, he would cover that) but Ne-Yo’s “Beautiful Monster,” with Lorem Weeknd Ipsum and Haim vocals. (If Haim is not actively petitioning to work with Max Martin, or vice versa, I will be very surprised.) As increasingly usual, The Weeknd tells the unspoken tale — he doesn’t think you understand, it’s gotta be him — about a girl who strips because she’s sad, see, and just comes crawling to The Weeknd then leaves in the morning because she’s just so sad, and it’s all so tragic, like religion. If it were’t in The Weeknd’s catalogue it might look like empathy, perhaps in the same way a 100-pixel closeup of a corpse might look like a rose petal. As it stands it’s Max Martin doing the inevitable and turning the ’80s revival to reviving the ’80s’ glossy emptiness, and The Weeknd doing exactly what he has done since 2011.
[6]
Jer Fairall: Possibly Abel Tesfaye’s most empathetic lyric, to the extent that a potentially jokey/skeezy throwaway like “it got her on her knees like religion” feels like it actually might be getting at something profound about the complex nature of trauma. Whether one wants to read Max Martin’s glossy surfaces here as either an ironic counterpoint or a gross mismatch is tricker; whatever you may have felt about the druggy haze of House of Balloons, there was never any doubt that form fitted content.
[6]
Crystal Leww: Surprisingly groovy until the wet noodled “I don’t think you understand.” My resolution for 2016 is to ignore The Worstnd until he goes away.
[3]
Will Adams: There is no justice in the world, which is why this piece of glittery, shuffle-rhythm synthpop with a rollicking bassline and fireworks of emotion will be several orders more successful than this one. This song? Oh, it’s decent.
[6]