The Weeknd - House of Balloons

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  • "You wanna be high for this." So goes the opening chorus to House of Balloons, the free mixtape offered up by The Weeknd, and the singer's not kidding. The spaced-out, syrupy productions and tunes laced with ghostly sadness certainly come across as cannabis-friendly, in a joint-before-bed kinda way. It's forward-thinking and futuristic R&B, and while it doesn't rewrite the book on the genre in the way that some might suggest, it's a meaningful enough contribution towards boundary-pushing that places it alongside acts like James Blake and The xx who similarly deploy a certain stark minimalism as the backdrop for melancholic soul-baring. Over nine tracks the group, composed of producers Doc McKinney and Illangelo and singer Abel Tesfaye, explore the hollowness and vanity behind the hedonism and glamour of city nightlife, mixing yearning and regret, ecstasy and exile, midnight madness and the morning after—sometimes explicitly with song titles like "The Party & The After Party," "The Morning," and "Coming Down." There's a sort of disarming, beatnik hipness at work alongside the autotune emoting, as if it's an R. Kelly music video filmed by Cassavetes. "The Morning" wears a gorgeous hangover halo, its urban scenery unfolding in a bleary hour when you no longer know if you're going to bed or just waking up, and you don't hear a sound, not even your brain whispering thoughts about what happened the night before. On "Loft Music" Tesfaye's singing just about sums up the group's overall vibe – as much as he's recounting one-night stands, partying and ballin', there's a desperation lurking in each line, as if he's not sure if he's proud of what he's doing or if he'd like nothing more than to leave this tawdry world behind for good. The track ends with him crooning wordlessly in the void. With its clever branding, stylish photography and hybrid sound—not to mention the fact that it's free—House of Balloons is poised as a clever 21st century crossover, appealing to a cross-section of listeners from the realms of indie rock, techno and avant-garde pop. This works most of the time. Some of the indie-friendly sampling (Beach House, Siouxsie and the Banshees) comes across a little flat, more the result of calculation than inspiration—while Beach House's Victoria Legrand has a stunning voice, it doesn't have the same effect when sped up into the sort of chipmunk sample you expect on a Kanye track. The Siouxsie sample is a bit lugubrious...but re-singing the chorus to "Happy House" on a track about the emptiness of partying is pretty spot on, so it evens out. Such moves show that the group's not short on ideas. And, at the very least, House of Balloons is a pertinent reminder that it's possible—in the right hands—for R&B to sound as experimental as anything else.
  • Tracklist
      01. High for This 02. What You Need 03. House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls 04. The Morning 05. Wicked Games 06. The Party & The After Party 07. Coming Down 08. Loft Music 09. The Knowing
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