OMG I just can’t anymore–I can’t keep the emotions bottled up inside. Is it possible to OD on music?? I have to wonder because when I’m not listening to this album I feel like I’m suffering from some serious withdrawals…

So the album is My Dear Melancholy, by The Weeknd. Jesus fucking Christ…I just can’t EVEN with this one. Okay, in full disclosure, with only 6 (amazing) songs, it’s actually an EP–Spotify classifies it as a “single” (eyeroll). But, whatever–semantics. The point is: the old The Weeknd is back, bitchez!

For some background, I have been a *huge* Weeknd fan since circa 2012, when I first heard Wicked Games on the radio. Although, I didn’t KNOW it was Wicked Games at the time.

…Allow me to tell you a story–I promise it’s short. Anyway, this story takes place when I was still in grad school (lol…). I was in my car driving back from Walmart or some shit, and I hear this SONG. I had never heard it before. And it fucking FLOORED me–like almost made me slam the brakes, floored. To give you some perspective, as a general rule, I *never* like songs the first time I hear them. Never. But this…holy shit. It just hit me like a slap in the face.

I had tuned in maybe midway thru the song, and I was scrambling like a motherfucker for my iPhone, trying to Shazaam it before it ended because I was starting to feel like my life would be incomplete if I didn’t learn what this song was or who was singing it. But, alas, Shazaam was slow and shitty back in those days, and so I missed my chance.

When I got home, I desperately tried to remember the lyrics, but I’m terrible with that shit, so my successive Google searches yielded nothing. For days, I despaired, thinking that this amazing song had slipped through my fingers forever. AND THEN, I heard it again–and I was ready this time, folks. I Shazaam’d the shit out of that song, and the rest is history…

So maybe that was kind of a long-ass story after all, but the point remains: I’m pretty much obsessed with The Weeknd. As it turns out, Wicked Games was a solo released from his album Trilogy, which is really just a compilation of his mix tapes. And it’s some raw, angsty, sexy, gritty goodness–straight from Abel Tesfaye’s dark and melancholy heart. I remember thinking to myself at the time, this guy–this fucking guy–he’s incredible.

And so I was beyond happy when he started achieving commercial success a few years later with his solo The Hills and his breakthrough album (or what I consider to be his breakthrough album) Beauty Behind The Madness. Starboy, which came afterwards with its smash hit title track, was still awesome–don’t get me wrong. But nobody can deny that it was pop music–a strict departure from his earlier, off-beat emo R&B jams.

The soulfulness of the music had bled away, but I accepted it as the natural progression of his talent and ambitions. I can’t fault someone for hustling–I mean, goddamn, aren’t we all? But still I was sad and missing the old style.

But THANK GOD for Selena Gomez–she broke Abel’s heart, and The Weeknd was reborn! Seriously though, as much as I feel for him, because he’s clearly torn up inside, I think like the phoenix emerging from the fucking ashes, he will look back on this phase in his life and realize that it was necessary for his evolution as an artist. I’m no fucking artist like him, but I feel the same way about the shit I’ve gone through in my much less storied life.

Which brings me, at last, to the point: PLEASE, if you haven’t already, give My Dear Melancholy, a listen. In the past I’ve made some “songtrack posts,” but there was no need this time, because if there ever was an album that conveyed the mood, the tension, the rawness and depth of emotion I’m hoping to convey in The Pact, it would be this album right here.

I can’t praise it highly enough. Abel, you’ll never read this, but still I want you to know that you have an incredible soul and are a true inspiration to me. God bless, and keep on keepin’ on.

And I’ll do the same. <3

What music speaks to you? 🙂