Dawn FM

2020s pop music so brilliantly crafted that it causes you to realise how much other 2020s pop music is makeweight.

“After Hours” has resonated for nearly two years after its release, and in the face of another phase of a daunting pandemic, it seems that “Dawn FM” — possibly the Weeknd’s best and most fully realized album to date — will help carry fans through this one as well.

With Dawn FM The Weeknd has demonstrated a vision that the vast majority of his peers would be incapable of, and has executed it with finesse and a slippery, enigmatic charm.

“Dawn FM,” his fifth major-label album, is sleek and vigorous and also, again, a light reimagining of what big-tent music might sound like now, in an era when most global stars have abandoned the concept.

It's a brilliant new benchmark in his already stellar discography, showcasing just how much of an artistic powerhouse he has become and a clear shift from the darkness that his music, even at its poppiest, once embodied.

The album’s features are among the best in the Weeknd catalogue, highlighting love and loss spanning decades.

Dawn FM might be just shy of summoning the truly divine, but its best moments provide enough blinding light to counter the increasingly enveloping gloom of 2022.

It's invigorating, vulnerable and, at times, uncomfortably raw.

Musically, Dawn FM mirrors Tesfaye’s disquiet, its buffed electronic sheen ruptured by moments of discord, as when ballad Starry Eyes teeters on the brink of implosion. It’s a state that Tesfaye seems to relish, with often stunning results.

Tesfaye's almost fathomless vocal facility elevates even the most rudimentary expressions of co-dependency, despair, regret, and obsession, and he helps it all go down easier with station ID jingles and an amusingly hyped-up ad for "a compelling work of science fiction" called (the) "After Life."

Admittedly, The Weeknd is light years away from the sounds of Trilogy and a lot closer to the sounds of After Hours and Starboy, but one thing is for sure: this album is much closer to excellence than his last offerings.

Dawn FM is no Thriller by any means (sorry Timbaland) but it’s a solid chapter in the story of an artist who continues to unabashedly defy expectations. And ultimately, we’re lucky to be along for the ride.

This is the Weeknd’s most ambitious project in sound and scope, and the most effective record he’s put out in years. Part of the thrill comes from hearing him take himself a little less seriously

Rather than looking outward or upward, though, Dawn FM is a woozy, psychedelic deep dive inside the artist’s famously twisted psyche.

Whilst it lacks the character and vivacity of its predecessor, ‘Dawn FM’ develops the latest reinvention of the Weeknd with its dramatic instrumentation and refreshed view of the world.

Dawn FM is his most ambitious album to date, and one that shows welcome signs of emotional and psychological growth.

What better balm for the start of another troubled year than our biggest star making music as good as this?

New record is a self-knowing contradiction to The Weeknd’s past celebrations of impermanence via one-night stands and sleazy affairs. Now he understands, even regrets, his flighty behaviour.

Dawn FM feels like the first steps on a journey for The Weeknd to find peace with himself; perhaps next time we hear from him, he’ll be fully embracing the light of day.

Exquisitely rendered tunes lush with echoes of Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode. ... The songs boogie and shimmer just so; the melodies ache with longing and regret. And these vocals! Over forget-me-not grooves as finely detailed as any Mtume or Patrice Rushen fan could want, the Weeknd sings more beautifully than he ever has on “Dawn FM.” ... The year’s first great album.

Dawn FM is well-polished — co-executive producer Max Martin makes sure of it — while maintaining its dexterity, punch and sex appeal, in step with most of The Weeknd’s catalog. It’s mercifully cohesive, too, a rare A-list pop album that actually rewards the listener for engaging with it in sequence.

On his fifth album, Dawn FM, the Weeknd focuses those interstellar ambitions to anoint us with the most enchanting music to the portal through purgatory.