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Sep 6, 2013Sonically, his oeuvre has bridged the divide between barren and lush. Lyrically, he has perfected the motif of narcotized horror.... This is the real deal.
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Sep 10, 2013For an act founded in anonymity and reserve, it turns out the Weeknd's most convincing work of art is Tesfaye's own rollout as a star and storyteller.
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Sep 9, 2013It allows listeners to refamilairize themselves with the Weeknd's aesthetic, which was striking and singular to begin with.
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Sep 6, 2013He isolates himself inside long, slow-tempo songs that edge from seductive into oppressive--and, with their reverberating guitar chords and crisp, dominating drum sounds, will feel oddly familiar to anyone who's enjoyed a 1980s ballad by Genesis.
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Sep 27, 2013Ultimately the genius of Kiss Land‘s production lies in its ability to literalise Tesfaye’s fractured state of mind.
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Sep 23, 2013Kiss Land is a fascinating record, Tesfaye defying reservations with the self-absorption of a madman.
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MojoSep 19, 2013The 23-year-old Ethiopian-Canadian's sonic evolution continues on Kiss Land. [Oct 2013, p.88]
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Sep 18, 2013Kiss Land is pulpy, mournful, pungent, unnerving.
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Sep 16, 2013The result is a seductive layering of glittering, MOR surfaces, ambient textures and a deep, aching undertow.
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Sep 13, 2013In all though, Kiss Land succeeds on not only being an album in the assumed sense of the word, with big singles, tasty hooks and singalong phrases, but as a concept record too, one that takes you hostage.
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Sep 12, 2013Kiss Land is proof for the unconvinced: the Weeknd is a star whether he wants to be or not.
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Sep 6, 2013He’s managed to transcend his previous efforts via the scaling up the sonics and simply maintaining the quality of this excellent record.
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Under The RadarDec 4, 2013Kiss Land covers musical and lyrical territory similar to 2012's Trilogy, but Abel Tesfaye's falsetto recollections of joylessly shallow sexual escapades still sound relatively fresh and novel. [Nov-Dec 2013, p.100]
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Sep 12, 2013Overall, Kiss Land is a decent first full-length, but for the hype that The Weeknd had built up leading to this release, some (if not most) will say that it failed to meet expectations, especially compared to the incredible hype that surrounded his 2011 debut.
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Sep 11, 2013The 23-year-old Tesfaye will almost certainly make a bigger, better record soon. For now, Kiss Land works fine as one of the year’s most fearless pop releases.
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Sep 6, 2013Kiss Land plays like a more considered, better-mastered continuation of Echoes of Silence, not anything dramatically different.
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Sep 9, 2013Kiss Land sounds every bit as isolated and singular as Tesfaye feels.
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Sep 27, 2013While this leap into the big leagues proves that he’s still very much a rare talent, it unfortunately seems that genuine inspiration is even rarer.
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Sep 12, 2013This album is a polished, lateral step with an accompanying barcode for Weeknd’s fans. And outsiders looking to understand his appeal are likely better off downloading the three mixtapes that preceded the album.
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Sep 10, 2013Unfortunately, Tesfaye can veer toward the portentous with his youthful, conflicted lyrical vision, which often confuses sex with love.
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Sep 6, 2013It's in these moments--when he's paying attention to melody and songwriting--that Kiss Land demonstrates plenty of promise and tentative steps in the right direction.
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Oct 9, 2013He still has an ear for production and his voice remains a pliable tool, but to keep himself tethered to an aesthetic he defined and completed within a year is to do himself and the listener a disservice.
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Sep 16, 2013Despite Kiss Land being The Weeknd’s major label debut release, what was once a breath of fresh air now sounds rather played out.
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Sep 11, 2013The punches seem half-pulled, and the production glides by without much of an impact.
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Sep 9, 2013The slightly wider vocal range and additional expressiveness don't hurt his cause. For those who aren't as easily drawn into Tesfaye's world, this will seem roughly as insufferable and as bleakly aimless as the earlier material.
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Sep 23, 2013Kiss Land follows in the lethargic steps of 2012's Trilogy, but the pace is slower, songwriting thinner and vision more bloodshot.
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Sep 13, 2013This debut album proper fails to develop or change-up his formula of predatory sexuality expressed in tremulous tones.
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Sep 12, 2013Killer hooks might transform his singular subject, "the loneliness of filling every need", into a perversely seductive portrait of ennui, but Tesfaye has always been a middling songwriter.
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Sep 12, 2013For the most part, songs come off as vapid and barely take a knife to the surface of his earlier work.
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Sep 10, 2013The initial mystique of The Weeknd is gone, and we’re now confronted with the work of a young man who possesses an impressive voice, an incredible ear for production, and a complete lack of purpose in his confrontational, intensely graphic lyrical obsessions.
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Sep 9, 2013The problem with Kiss Land is that it fails on both fronts, presenting a musically static album that's also disturbingly backward on gender issues, with a sustained focus on degradation that no longer seems anything but vile.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 241 out of 297
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Mixed: 41 out of 297
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Negative: 15 out of 297
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Sep 10, 2013
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Sep 10, 2013
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Sep 13, 2013