The Weeknd - Dawn FM review: Abel Tesfaye reaches his pop prime with a sparkling set of songs

The singer doubles down on pop in his latest album with resounding success
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David Smyth7 January 2022

Abel Tesfaye looked like an unlikely bet to become one of the world’s biggest pop stars when he emerged from Toronto with a trio of free mixtapes in 2011. His nihilistic brand of R&B, packed with blank-eyed tales of explicit sex and unquenchable drug consumption, was high on atmosphere but a long way from daytime pop, despite the clear resemblance of his pure voice to Michael Jackson’s.

A decade on, he stands astride the mainstream, with a Super Bowl half time show to his name and one massive hit in particular. The glorious Eighties synthpop of Blinding Lights spent eight weeks at number one in the UK and broke the record for the longest time spent in the US Billboard chart.

There are two ways the 31-year-old can go from there: back to the weirdness (a move suggested by the presence on almost every track on Dawn FM of edgy electronica producer Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never) or to do the pop thing better than ever. Tesfaye has gone for the latter with resounding success. While past albums had plenty of catchy moments he was never far from the murk of some forgettable ballads. This one struts and twirls with supreme confidence, even cementing the Jacko connection with a spoken word contribution from producer Quincy Jones.

Jim Carrey is a surprising presence too, holding the concept together as a soothing radio DJ. Dawn FM is meant to be the station that plays as you travel into the afterlife, with Tesfaye playing Charon, seeing us across with a sparkling set of songs that make it feel pretty great being dead.

The other transition the album recalls is the one Daft Punk made for their meticulously composed final album, Random Access Memories. Tesfaye worked with the robotic dance duo on his Starboy album in 2016, and though they aren’t present here, there’s a similar analogue funkiness to the synths on songs such as Sacrifice and the smooth slowie Out of Time.

Here he makes do with asking inferior dance act Swedish House Mafia to summon the spirit of Giorgio Moroder on the racing disco of How Do I Make You Love Me?, while Swedish hit machine Max Martin helps to make sure every melody is heaven bright.

He may be singing about life’s end, made up to look like a tired old man on the cover, but it’s far from all over for The Weeknd. On Dawn FM, he’s reached his pop prime.

(XO/Republic)

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