Dawn FM: The Weeknd's newest masterpiece is here!
The Canadian R&B/pop singer and songwriter The Weeknd has once again managed to captivate the masses with his new album "Dawn FM". Despite the somewhat questionable album cover, The Weeknd manages to immerse his fans in another world with his new album, his world.
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, his real name, is known for his chart-topping songs, such as 'Can't Feel My Face', which helped him achieve mainstream success, 'Starboy' and 'Blinging Lights' (which also made history on the 'Billboard Hot 100 Charts' as the new 'No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 of all time') and has bagged several awards for it, including three Grammys before boycotting the Grammy jury. He has also had the honour of performing his biggest hits to date at the Super Bowl 2021 halftime show last year, with incredible visuals. And his latest album Dawn FM offers us much more of the same. Dawn FM has already surpassed even his previous album in terms of Spotify streams and is now considered his biggest debut on the Spotify Global Charts.
The meaning behind "Dawn FM"
For his fifth album Dawn FM, The Weeknd was once again very creative and thoughtful, because the album Dawn FM depicts a fictional radio station. The theme of the album: the protagonist is on his way to the afterlife and is in a kind of "purgatory state", as explained by The Weeknd himself in an interview with Billboard. He is guided by an unspecified power of his own, which is portrayed in the album by none other than Jim Carrey, the radio announcer. Phrases such as "You are listening to 103.5 Dawn FM" and "The Dawn is coming" recur throughout the album in several songs to remind the listener that they are listening to a radio broadcast. Dawn FM is about the purgatory The Weeknd found himself in: a time of lustful thoughts, sins, and fun, which later all turned to regret. But the album also deals with accepting his bad behaviour during this "dark time" and moving on in life.
The album also already has three intriguing music videos for its singles "Take My Breath", "Sacrifice" and "Gasoline", which all share a common story and convey profound messages. Fan favourites from the album, however, include the songs "Best Friends", "Out Of Time" and "I Heard You're Married (feat. Lil Wayne)". Especially the smooth transitions from song to song made his fans go crazy. Many of them also describe the album as a mixture of the electro-music duo Daft Punk and pop legend Michael Jackson. The fact that the album sounds retro and futuristic at the same time is very refreshing and stirring!
The Weeknd's previous album "After Hours", with the song 'Blinding Lights' as its lead single, was mainly set in a city of lights and kept quite a bright colour scheme. Dawn FM, although named after the sunrise, is much darker with its black and blue colour palette. But in his new album, The Weeknd not only draws attention to his dark times, but also to hope and betterment through self-knowledge and finding meaning behind certain things or decisions, ending his album, and thus the journey in his state of mind, with a poem by Jim Carrey called "Phantom Regret by Jim", about self-love, respect, and one's own inner peace.
The Weeknd worked with legends for his album!
Abel not only had the honour of working with legendary comedian Jim Carrey, but also managed to bring Michael Jackson's producer Quincy Jones out of retirement. And Quincy is the ultimate cheat code for producing timeless music because he not only produced hit songs for Michael Jackson, but entire albums that are still loved by many people today. Quincy's input can be heard especially in the song 'Sacrifice', as it reminds many fans of Michael Jackson's timeless song 'Thriller'.
He even had his own interlude on the album titled 'A Tale by Quincy', whose story parallels Abel's life as neither grew up with much love, which is now affecting Abel as he doesn't know how to properly treat his current relationship.
The fact that he is collaborating with The Weeknd speaks volumes as The Weeknd is really making a statement! Neither world stars like Beyoncé, nor Bruno Mars, Chris Brown or Justin Bieber have had the honour of working with Quincy Jones, which is exactly why The Weeknd is already being called the new "King Of Pop/ RnB" by so many. Whether he is actually on the same level as Michael is questionable, but one cannot deny that he is already ahead of his time. So his competitors should prepare themselves because The Weeknd is not to be trifled with.
Discussions around the album
Besides Jim Carrey, Quincy Jones and there are a few other names associated with this album.
In the song "Here We Go...Again" (feat. Tyler, the Creator), fans have come across some very interesting lines that they suspect are about The Weeknd's ex-girlfriend and model Bella Hadid, who is now dating a high-profile art director named Marc Kalman, and his current supposed partner Angelina Jolie, as Abel was spotted with the Hollywood star on two dates last year by paparazzi.
Another song that caused a lot of whispering was none other than "I Heard You're Married (feat. Lil Wayne)" because many speculate that the song is about Ariana Grande, who had an alleged hanky-panky with the Canadian. However, neither of the two has yet confirmed whether this rumour is really true.
But that should not matter, because Ariana Grande has been happily married for several months. Besides, you can't deny what a great singing duo they are, because they have already delighted us with many duets like "Love Me Harder", "off the table" and "Save Your Tears (Remix)".
