He has the house, women, jewelry and drugs, but none of it was making him as happy as he thought. When he does establish fame and becomes what he always wanted, reality hits him. He also addresses his challenging upbringing of having little money, finding places to live and staying warm in the freezing Toronto weather, as well as his fear of not being successful in his music career. “Snowchild” explores Abel’s troubling past of drugs and women while he was soaring to fame. Abel sums it up poetically with: “And if I held you back, at least I held you close (Yeah),” emphasizing how he prevented her from moving on and doing better things but claiming he was always there for her even at the end. He was clingy and desperate to always be in proximity to them. He explains his problems of being a toxic partner to the women he was with, even when he saw issues popping up. One of the best tracks, “Scared to Live,” gives the album the best introduction to Abel’s struggle as he recognizes the harm he has done to women in his life. His personal and heartfelt lyrics that grace each track diverge from his earliest works. This 14-track project is a heart-breaking, drug-filled journey of cathartic uneasiness where nostalgia meets accountability. “After Hours” is not a mashup of songs, but a concept album where Abel takes responsibility for his mistakes in past relationships while holding back his selfish toxic traits. An electrifying album, “After Hours” could sonically fit in a variety of decades as it races to capture our attention from the eerie mix of “Alone Again” to the pop of “Heartless.” This truly is an album exhibiting the creative and influential genius of Abel. The future blending together is a new sound for Abel, aka The Weeknd’s newest album “After Hours.” His silky voice over the ’80s synth beats provides a pop style of upbeat sounds and grooves that keep listeners feet-tapping and head-bobbing. A journey of reconciling with love and doubt blends with a blast from the past with ’80s beats.

The weeknd new album 2017