Does The Weeknd Have a Classic Album?: Head to Head with Edd

Welcome back to Head to Head with Edd, where yours truly goes toe-to-toe with the superfans of the game’s biggest artists. We’ll take a look at the selected artist’s biggest hits and misses and see where we can find common ground.

If you told me in 2011 that the weird guy who dropped mixtapes about strippers and cocaine but was too afraid to show his real face would be the biggest pop star in the world a decade later, I’d tell you to put the glass pipe down.

But that’s exactly what happened. Abel Tesfaye’s innovative mixtape run and subsequent dominance of pop music has made the Weeknd a household name – misspellings and all. Today I’m joined by my boy Troy Smith, music writer for Cleveland.com, podcasters and renowned Weeknd stan, to argue all things Abel.

Like it or not, this guy truly changed the game.

Y’all know how we usually kick this thing off: Name The Weeknd’s three best albums.

Troy:

1. House of Balloons 

2. After Hours 

3. Beauty Behind the Madness 

House of Balloons and After Hours define two different periods for The Weeknd. But I think it always comes back to the former. House of Balloons put him on the map and the influence of his alt-R&B sound, whether you love it or hate it, can’t be denied. 

Edd:

1. House of Balloons

2. Beauty Behind the Madness 

3. Kiss Land

It’s amazing to think about it today, especially since its sound has been reused more than that Crying Jordan meme, but when House of Balloons dropped, there was nothing like it. That’s what made it so exciting to some, and so bizarre to others. It didn’t just send R&B on a new trajectory, it became the sharp right turn for pop and hip-hop as well. It likely will always be his defining work. Beauty Behind the Madness is a different album entirely, but it works so, so well as Abel’s first successful foray into the world of mainstream pop. Kiss Land is a bridge between both those sounds, and though it’s clearly a transitional outing, it’s still pretty solid.

Oh, and before someone yells in the comments because lord knows it’s gonna come up – After Hours is FINE. Not great in my eyes, just FINE. Maybe top 5 or so.

And what’s his worst album?

Troy: Kiss Land

Some fans love it. I’m not one of them. It was a transitional album for The Weeknd, where he feels a bit lost and the songs are just too long.  

Edd: Starboy

Chalk me up as one of those fans that love Kiss Land. Your criticisms are valid though. However, it’s leagues ahead of Starboy. I know it’s held in high regard by his current pop fanbase – it was the origin story of Weeknd’s incessant SynthMania, after all – but the bloated runtime and repetitive tracklist kill it dead. It’s like the bad beta test for After Hours and Dawn FM, both of which are much better.

Name Abel’s best single.

Troy: “Wicked Games”

It’s has everything. It introduced most people to The Weeknd and when it comes to his brand of drugs, shame and pain … well, it doesn’t get more monumental. 

Edd: “The Hills”

As much as I want to say “Often,” I feel like “The Hills” is the most Weeknd song that ever Weeknd’d. The distorted vocals, the toxic relationships, the drug-induced haze enveloping all of it – it’s Weeknd at his self-destructive best. It’s certainly not his most accessible song (like “I Can’t Feel My Face”) or his most fun (maybe “I Feel It Coming”) but it’s certainly the most Weeknd of them all.

What’s his worst single?

Troy: “Rockin”

I don’t know if any of The Weeknd’s singles are bad (He’s good at picking which songs to push). But some are forgettable. Like most things on his Starboy album, the synths are a bit awkward and too bloated for me on “Rockin.’” 

Edd: “Rockin”

You can pick almost anything from Starboy (besides the title track, “Reminder” and “Party Monster”) and I’ll likely throw it away. I didn’t even remember “Rockin” until Troy mentioned it, so let’s go with that one. I was going to select “Secrets,” but “Rockin” is even more forgettable. Literally.

Name an album cut that should have been a single

Troy: “Tell Your Friends“

This track had me on the first listen to Beauty Behind the Madness, which is saying something considering how big the actual singles were. The production is vintage Kanye and The Weeknd’s performance is flawless. It had a video but wasn’t an official single. Criminal.  

Edd: “Tell Your Friends“

YES LORD! When you’re right you’re right, playa. Like Troy said, there was a video for “Tell Your Friends” and it did chart eventually so this is a bit of a cheat but this might be my favorite Weeknd song ever so I’m OK with bending the rules. We don’t get to hear Cocky Weeknd talk his talk much anymore and that’s a shame. Swag is on 1000 and the production is an underrated highlight.

What’s his best video?

Troy: “Blinding Lights“

How can it not be “Blinded by the Lights?” This entire wild mess is etched in pop culture history now.  

Edd: “Blinding Lights“

I feel like all Weeknd videos fall into two categories – Broccoli-Haired Weirdo Being Creepy and/or Confused or Weirdo with a Better Haircut Being Creepy and/or Confused. They’re rarely interesting. “Blinding Lights” is probably the most visually appealing, so yeah, that’s go with that one.

The man has a bunch of high-profile features, but which is his best?

Troy: “Crew Love”

This song never belonged to Aubrey. It belongs to Abel. No question.  

Edd: “Crew Love”

Yeah, it’s not even close. I bet you’re humming the chorus right now. That’s because Weeknd absolutely steals the show.

Weeknd’s current music is clearly 80s inspired. If he debuted during that era, would he have found the same level of success?

Troy: Yes. For me, the consistent ability to craft hit songs is one of the most transferrable things between eras. No matter what era The Weeknd was in, he would likely find a way to succeed. Heck, he might have been even bigger in the big pop era of the 80s.  

Edd: Ehhh. I don’t know if it’s that cut and dried. My complaints about his current complacency aside, Abel has an incredible knack for redefining his sound for new audiences. I have no doubt that he’d find success in any era. But the 80s pop scene was a MUCH different ballgame than today and I don’t see evidence of him reaching the upper echelon when actual living legends were still running the game. He’d be successful but I doubt it’s 2020-level superstardom.  

Weeknd’s sound has undoubtedly influenced the game over the past decade. Have those contributions been a positive, a negative, or a little of both?

Troy: It’s almost always both for any artist. But I think The Weeknd’s early music definitely took R&B to a place where it wasn’t ready to go and some artists who tried it weren’t capable of replicating it. You could argue it was more beneficial for the emo-rap kids. The Weeknd’s current pop style is more focused on pushing boundaries for creativity, which I think is always a good thing.  

Edd: I preach this all the time – evolution is a good thing. Change is scary, sometimes annoying, but always necessary. It’s very easy for us as fans to find our comfort zone, i.e., a sound we personally enjoy, and expect our favorite artists to NEVER EVER LEAVE IT AND IF YOU DO YOU’RE A TRAITOR. But that’s a recipe for stagnation. Weeknd’s influence on the alt-R&B movement was jarring, no doubt, but it was essential. And to his credit, of all the copycat players in that realm, his sound was among the best. Even today with his current faux Michael Jackson routine, I’m not opposed to it – in theory. He’s building upon a formula that worked in the past and adding his own spin to modernize it. That’s fine. Of course I would eventually have major issues with both his paths – the oversaturation of his dismal R&B sound (which was more the fault of the imitators, not Abel) and the stagnation of his synthy pop stuff (which is all his fault). Overall, his contributions were positive in pushing both genres out of their comfort zones, they would just have negative effects in the long run. Such is life in this music game, I guess.

Does The Weeknd have a classic album?

Troy: No. House of Balloons was a highly influential mixtape. After Hours and Beauty Behind the Madness are magnum pop opuses. But they’re not classics in the sense that the timeless R&B/pop albums from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are. And that’s the measuring stick.  

Edd: I’m sure the Twitter thespians could make a case for all three of the albums Troy mentioned being classics. Although House of Balloons has the strongest argument, I hesitate to outright give it the classic tag. Is it influential? No doubt – it may be the most influential mixtape/album/playlist/whatever of the past decade. But in terms of the mixtape itself, track for track it’s good but lacks that high-level quality and consistency to push it to the upper echelon of greatness. But hey, who else can say they rewrote the rules of music with one mixtape? You can’t take that away from Weeknd.

Who got it right, Troy or Edd? Let us know who you’re siding with below.