The lights still blind…
[Video]
[6.56]
Al Varela: I want to be surprised The Weeknd is already starting a new era, but I think that’s only because “Blinding Lights” recently passed the record for the longest number of weeks on the Hot 100. It’s been more than a year since After Hours, so why not keep up that momentum with another big ’80s throwback? Part of me is really impressed with the incredibly polished and clean synth melodies that drive the song into a neon rainbow of dwindling roads and platinum lights, but I think another part of me knows it doesn’t do a lot to elevate itself beyond its influence. That’s not a bad thing; Bruno Mars’s whole career consists of indulging in retro pastiche, and I still love everything he puts out. Still, part of what makes After Hours and “Blinding Lights” such incredible moments in pop is that they transcend their influence. They have a love for ’80s culture and Vegas debauchery while still carving their own modern story that holds up beyond the nostalgia. This one doesn’t do as much to push beyond that, and it does make me worry that we’re going to get a more derivative album as a result. Still, I can’t deny what an exhilarating, fun song this is. It’s worth adding to The Weeknd canon.
[8]
Nortey Dowuona: One of the most surprising things about The Weeknd’s next touch of recreating Mike Jack is that “Take My Breath” starts with a shuddering, shimmering guitar that rises and falls in the background and the back of the mix, putting you in such an anticipatory mood that no matter what follows, you’s ready to listen. And as each high-pitched note keens in response to the verse and the chorus, his lower pitch wail feels especially strong, holding his higher tones in a trembling but firm grasp. Then the swirling “Runaway” bass sweeps up the stomping drums and supplants them in the middle of the mix, creating a warm, prickly feeling in my ears, and the chorus crashes back down, filled with sour-patch synths to sweeten you up. The twinkling synths fritter around at the door’s edge, inviting you back in….
[10]
Samson Savill de Jong: Name a more iconic trio than The Weeknd, retro disco pastiche and unecessarily dark lyrics about boning.
[8]
Edward Okulicz: Not sure why, but The Weeknd moping as if his very fate rests upon you sucking his dick is boring, but The Weeknd moping as if the fate of the entire world rests on the same thing is thrilling.
[9]
Ian Mathers: If breathplay was a love-it-or-hate-it kink pre-COVID it’s only more so now, but the Weeknd doesn’t really sell either the potential sexiness or the reasons some might find it genuinely offputting. At some point both the charm and the genuinely discomfiting aspect leached out of his work, and although he’s occasionally made up for it in other ways, when he can’t manage that, the results feel dreadfully hollow.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: I wish he weren’t so creepy, but the Moroder-isms on display here are undeniable.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: Tesfaye tells what the Moroder throb shows.
[6]
Alfred Soto: He sees the fire in her eyes because the furnace in which he burned every post-1980 referent went cold years ago.
[4]
Oliver Maier: Half-remembering songs from the radio growing up that you always thought you’d maybe hear again one day. They probably wouldn’t sound as good any more and, if they did, you’d run them dry on your streaming service of choice and grow bored of them. Was life always this unsexy? Did hit songs always make you feel so condescended to? Do they think you’re stupid? Are you stupid? Watching the sunset with your earphones in and feeling like the main character in a very long movie. Maybe you are stupid. Maybe you’ll figure it out tomorrow. Maybe you’ll finally delete your streaming service of choice and buy all of your music like you keep meaning to. There’s a new Weeknd song out again. You swear that other new Weeknd song came out, like, yesterday. It hasn’t left the charts in 20 months. Listening to the new one on your streaming service of choice. It’s fine. It feels like it should be catchy but it sort of isn’t. There are multiple lines about dying in it; it’s even there in the name. We’ve been making songs about dying for longer than we’ve been making songs on computers (a long time) but now more than ever we’re scared to press our ears against the future for fear of what we might hear. Is that so wrong? Are the ’80s over yet? Waking up from a bad dream about a movie you saw as a kid and going to the bathroom to take a piss. (Oooooh) You’re blinded by the lights. You go back to bed so you can wake up again. The Weeknd is wide awake in every time zone under every night sky, giddy with despair.
[4]