Get the latest gossip
The Weeknd: Dancing in the Flames review – another apocalyptic romance, and another surefire hit
Abel Tesfaye revisits his usual theme of nihilistic love and his beloved palette of 80s synths, but it’s melodically solid and there are some tweaks to the formula
Dawn FM was revealed to be the second in a trilogy of albums that began with 2020s’s After Hours, and Dancing in the Flames, the first single taken from part three – Hurry Up Tomorrow, which has been teased for the last nine months, and received a further publicity boost via a spectacular livestreamed Weeknd gig in São Paolo last week – suggests his outlook hasn’t much improved. As on David Bowie’s Five Years, with its weeping newsreader informing the world of its poor prognosis, the media aren’t much inclined to optimism – “‘The world can’t heal’, they say on the radio” – and if it’s a bit pretentious to describe the lines about vehicular suicide as Ballardian, they’re definitely a little reminiscent of the Smiths’ There Is a Light That Never Goes Out: “I can’t wait to see your face crash when we’re switching lanes … if I miss the brake we’re dancing in the flames … the fire’s raging but you’re still beautiful and it’s amazing.” All this is set to incongruously bright-hued and synth-fuelled music that leans ever more heavily into the 80s pop obsession that’s lurked around the Weeknd’s sound from the start, but which really came to the fore on 2020’s record-breaking single Blinding Lights.
Or read this on The Guardian