“The End” is here. The Weeknd dropped his sixth (and last?) studio album, HURRY UP TOMORROW, and it truly feels like a final farewell.
In 2011, the first trilogy was born. House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence paved the way for The Weeknd’s superstar ascent, but now, he rebukes the name. Revealing that he’s retiring “The Weeknd” moniker in various interviews, and personally throughout the 22-track opus, Abel is looking towards his next chapter post-reign as the biggest artist on the planet.
The album majorly focuses on themes of Abel’s depleting mental health, death and the plights of fame, among others. However, amidst the inner turmoil he endures (and has sung about for over a decade), he finds bliss, peace and a calmness that washes over him knowing that “TOMORROW” is never coming. This despair pushes Abel through the album until it all fades to black.
Admittedly, he’s tired of The Weeknd, and you can feel it throughout. But the beauty of HURRY UP TOMORROW lies within Abel’s incredible attention to detail, narratives that close career-long arcs and a cinematic essence that continues to prove that he’s ending his career on his own terms. “When is the right time to leave, if not at your peak?”, he told Variety in January, giving fans everything they could’ve ever asked for with the album, which includes a nationwide tour with Playboi Carti and a coinciding film set to release on May 16.
The Weeknd knows the end is inevitable, but for Abel Tesfaye, it’s only the beginning.
Here’s five takeaways from The Weeknd’s ‘HUT’!
Favorite tracks: “Enjoy The Show,” “I Can’t Wait To Get There,” “Cry For Me,” “Given Up On Me, “Without a Warning,” “Niagara Falls,” “Red Terror,” “Open Hearts”
It’s a Top 3 album from The Weeknd
Whatever your personal ranking is of The Weeknd’s catalog, HURRY UP TOMORROW is unquestionably a top 3 project in it. It still may be too early to call (and if you’re already labeling it as his magnum opus, please pump the brakes), but HUT contains some of The Weeknd’s most polished and cohesive storytelling, innovative production and otherworldly vocals in his discography. If it’s truly the end, he’s going out with a bang—cementing his legacy as one of the greatest artists of our generation.
The features complement Abel’s star power and story
Abel’s features choices have always been calculated, and on HURRY UP TOMORROW, he recruits a handful of longtime friends to help him say goodbye. On top of previously-released singles in “São Paulo” with Anitta and, of course, “Timeless” with Playboi Carti—peep their surprise performance at the GRAMMYs here—HURRY UP TOMORROW touts hidden features from Travis Scott (“Reflections Laughing”), Future (“Enjoy The Show”) and Lana Del Rey (“The Abyss”).
Each artist has been a frequent collaborator of Abel’s for years, appearing on tracks like Travis’ “Wake Up” on ASTROWORLD, “Low Life” and a slew of cuts on Future and Metro Boomin’s double album run in 2024. However, Lana Del Rey’s presence brings forth a divine feeling and a full circle moment, collaborating on The Weeknd’s “Prisoner” on Beauty Behind The Madness, “Stargirl Interlude” and “Lust For Life.” Her appearance on “The Abyss” rounds out the chemistry the pair have had for years; It’s truly a special moment. Additional contributions like Justice (“Wake Me Up”), Florence + the Machine (“Reflections Laughing”) and Giorgio Moroder (“Big Sleep”) also give HUT an extra layer of sonic depth.
It blends OG ‘Trilogy’ darkness and new trilogy vibes
“Given Up On Me,” “Enjoy The Show,” “Take Me Back to LA” and “The Abyss” are all examples of the sonic marriage between the darkness of the OG Trilogy and the glossiness of the new: keeping continuity with After Hours and Dawn FM. Abel contemplates closing the curtain on his career and, thematically, his life all over the album—especially on the finale track “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” Backed by slow-burning, shrill vocals that call back on his earlier work, sentiments of embracing the end (and death) are the defining, cinematic tie-in to HURRY UP TOMORROW‘s narrative.
Ultimately, The Weeknd strikes a perfect balance in merging that nostalgic feel (that longtime fans have yearned to hear for years) with the synth-heavy sound of the new-age trilogy. Hearing “I want my soul” on “Baptized In Fear” or begging to go into a “Big Sleep” are mere examples of Abel’s willingness for death; a cathartic, out-of-body experience overall. The parallels of the song titles from the first album in the new trilogy (After Hours) to HUT are also uncanny.
Here’s a few of The Weeknd’s darkest lines on HUT
“I can’t see clear / I wash my fears with whisky tears / I disappear / Don’t interfere, the end is near / The crowd’ll scream / I block my ears to stop the cheers / ‘Cause the stage took a toll / Been faded on the floor / In this penthouse prison, I’m alone.” — “Cry For Me”
“All I have is my legacy?… When life is hard / I know death’s easy” — “Wake Me Up”
“You pick me up when I’m low / I’m not violent to my body anymore / But I’m not scared, f*ck it, overdose / No one thought I’d makе it past 24 / And when the curtains call, I hopе you mourn / And if you don’t, I hope you enjoy the f*ckin’ show.” — “Enjoy The Show”
“Tryna right my wrongs, my rеgrets filling up my head / All the timеs I dodged death, this can’t be the way it ends.” — “Baptized In Fear”
So I see heaven after life / I want heaven when I die / I wanna change / I want the pain no more.” — “Hurry Up Tomorrow”
Why won’t you let me go? / Why won’t you let me leave? / I’ve given up on me” — “Given Up On Me”
Mike Dean’s fingerprints are all over ‘HUT’
The synth god Mike Dean has had a hand in every Weeknd project since 2015’s Beauty Behind The Madness, and 10 years later, Dean aids Abel in his transition to the other side flawlessly. Much like on Dawn FM, slick transporting melodies and whirly, seismic chords create a nebula of sound underneath The Weeknd’s angelic vocals. Not to mention the seamless transitions in between each of the songs, Mike Dean injects his signature 4:20 sauce throughout the entirety of the project. Dean is credited as the main producer on HUT, fitting for Abel’s final farewell as The Weeknd. After a decade of work together, his involvement (as expected) crafted yet another classic album for their resumes. So much so that Mike even said that HUT is the “best album” he’s ever made.
Is this really the end? It seems that way.
While there’s many lines that suggest that the end of The Weeknd is here (alongside an entire rollout dedicated to his last dance), Abel truly comes full circle on the album’s finale track “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” A ghostly piano ballad that opens the gates to heaven for The Weeknd, he contemplates his next chapter staring into the light, saying that he’s “ready for the end” and accepting that his curtain is being called. To further drive this home, the final seconds of “Hurry Up Tomorrow” bleed into “High For This”—the first track on Abel’s debut EP House Of Balloons. This leaves day one fans in pure awe, singing “I want heaven when I die / I wanna change / I want the pain no more.”
There’s no more pain now, The Weeknd. It’s all over. Let Abel take it from here.
Listen to ‘HURRY UP TOMORROW’ below!