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Aug 31, 2015Beauty Behind the Madness proves that the Weeknd can thrive in the mainstream, and while the lyrics aren't overtly profound, he's proven that he is more versatile than previously thought, which is perhaps of greater importance at this stage in his career.
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Aug 26, 2015In reaching out and grabbing every pop sound that’s been successful in the past half-century of mainstream pop, rolling it tightly in a blunt and setting them ablaze with Abel Tesfaye’s sonorous vocals, this release gets much higher than most anything else released in 2015.
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Aug 31, 2015He's aiming for harder truths, creating pop that also works as a commentary on choice and consequence.
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Aug 31, 2015As a cohesive album, Beauty Behind The Madness showcases artistic growth and sonic progression through danceable pop deliveries like 'In The Night' and grand acoustics like 'Shameless'.
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Sep 4, 2015Heavyweight names add gloss and will no doubt result in dollar signs but Tesfaye is infinitely more interesting when lashing out largely alone.
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Sep 1, 2015Ultimately, Beauty Behind the Madness is a heftier House of Balloons. Its weight is carried in the access to better production and drugs, and what the album truly accomplishes is proving that The Weeknd has never been wretched.
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Aug 31, 2015An impressive and revealing new album full of expertly crafted pop songs with clear-cut commercial goals.
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Aug 26, 2015The music has moved from the shadowy haze of trip-hop to an emphatic, monumental clarity--high-end pop craftsmanship. The production still conjures huge spaces, but now they are brightly illuminated, with each sound in crisp focus.
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Aug 28, 2015Anyone looking for a collection of homages to the King of Pop will be disappointed. Those masterpieces ["Can't Feel My Face" and "On The Night"] are outliers, and they end up making Madness’ missteps all the more jarring.... In the middle of those two poles lies a series of bass-heavy throb-and-moan blasts with the signature oddness (shape-shifting melodies, twitchy percussion) that makes the Weeknd a compelling artist.
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Aug 28, 2015In between Beauty’s innumerable hooks, Tesfaye finds room to be a pop figure with something to say.
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Aug 28, 2015It expertly and carefully closes the gap between The Weeknd’s perception and his reality.
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Sep 2, 2015In the end, enjoying the Weeknd requires a certain suspension of disbelief, and that remains true on Beauty Behind the Madness. You really have to buy into his bad-guy persona.... For newcomers, there's a whole world to explore, and on Beauty Behind the Madness it's richer and smarter than ever.
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Sep 10, 2015If the sound has widened and even brightened in spots, the Weeknd still rocks a serious Eeyore vibe for much of Beauty Behind the Madness.
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Sep 1, 2015He may have softened his edge, upped the production and pulled in the stars, but The Weeknd remains an outsider.
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Aug 28, 2015Beauty Behind the Madness is front-loaded with fresh directions for the Weeknd that achieve the impossible: make it sound like he’s actually enjoying himself.
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Aug 26, 2015The lecherous lyrics that built his core are still here, but the beats are larger, more capacious, and more lush..... [“Tell Your Friends”] shows a growth in the Weeknd’s songwriting that unfortunately isn’t more prevalent throughout the album.
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Aug 26, 2015As good as these songs are, their lyrical monotony can be punishing.
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Sep 22, 2015Many fans will still be happy with the change that Beauty Behind The Madness has brought but some will surely feel the album has nothing to offer except immediate accessibility for the short attention of the mainstream.
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Sep 8, 2015Real Life builds up to a pitch of doomed drama from a corrosive slash of guitar as Tesfaye confides that even his “Mama called me destructive”. But Ed Sheeran fails to rescue him on the tedious Dark Times and Lana Del Rey--who ought to be his perfect partner in pop-noir--adds nothing but a bored spritz of vocal perfume to the lethargic Prisoner.
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Sep 4, 2015Beauty Behind the Madness leaves one feeling just as estranged from Abel Tesfaye’s depraved character as previous releases boasting less adhesive tunes.
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Aug 31, 2015The Weeknd’s most conventional songs thus far are Sheeran’s boringly retro Dark Times, and Shameless, a guitar ballad unredeemable even by its deranged guitar solo. Elsewhere, the step up is more convincing, if not always easy to listen to.
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Aug 31, 2015The commercial strides are obvious. The creative advancements are less apparent, obstructed by some unappealing measures, but they're in there.
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Aug 28, 2015The sound is more dense and self-conscious than ever, the twin Achilles’ heels of this star. At times, the mix blurs Tesfay’s vocals, preventing them from taking a deserved center stage.
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Aug 28, 2015Despite such strong highlights dropped in the album’s middle section (the acoustic guitar ballad “Shameless” easily vying for the album’s silver medal after the gold that is “Can’t Feel My Face”), Beauty ends up having a strange beast of a failing: none of the guest spots really add to the album’s overall vibe.
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Aug 26, 2015The album is plagued by similarly banal lyrics about sex and drugs that make his playboy image feel all the more superficial.... More positively, the poppier musical strategy perfectly suits his boyish vocals, and he sounds more open and less pretentious than ever before.
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Sep 3, 2015This is the same old monotonous Weeknd melancholy, only distilled through a huge pop filter. Which certainly makes it listenable, and a little bit nicer, but far from the innovative mainstream breakthrough album we were promised.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 495 out of 567
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Mixed: 43 out of 567
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Negative: 29 out of 567
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Aug 28, 2015
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Sep 19, 2015
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Aug 29, 2015