Recently, on March 29, 2018, 28 year old singer Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, better known by his stage name (The Weeknd) dropped a new album that has his fans going crazy. The album is named “My Dear Melancholy,” unlike his early work where most of his music was composed of R&B pop, in this album The Weeknd revisits his dark side. With lyrics such as “We said our last goodbyes, so let’s just try to end it with a smile”, approximately 23 minutes after “My Dear Melancholy” dropped the internet was alight with people wondering if these songs were about his breakup with Selena Gomez or Bella Hadid.
The album features several previous collaborators such as Skrillex, Nicolas Jaar, Daft Punks Guy-Manuel de Homem- Cristo, and Mike WiLL Made-It. On songs like “Wasted Times” the Weeknd admits to his own missteps in the relationship, but a majority of the lyrics shows that he is blaming the lost love. “My Dear Melancholy,” whose title has a comma at the end, almost makes it seem as if Tesfaye was beginning a letter to his own sadness.
“My Dear Melancholy,” seems like a transition, it is completely different from the music he has produced in the past year. Senior Johnathan Alsaka says this is his new favorite album, “I love all the songs, my favorite one is Wasted Times.” Another student, junior Payton Wiernik says her favorite song from the album is “Call Out My Name.” “I love this song, the lyrics are inspiring and all of the songs really changed the image of The Weeknd,” said Wiernik. Lyrically, “My Dear Melancholy,” takes on a striking new physicality moving beyond his tendency and towards emotional numbness.