The Weeknd - Kiss Land

Well that bandwagon disintegrated pretty quick didn't it? In the few weeks between this album's release and me actually listening to it, one could've drawn the impression that Abel Tesfaye had put out a series of Aqua covers. The backlash aimed at his first proper LP - the first after a confusing and, at times, frustrating series of EPs and repackages of EPs named something silly like Trilogy - is almost certainly down to a few hipster whinings about how it (obviously) doesn't quite measure up to House of Balloons. I remember a few similar complaints between Nostalgia.Ultra and Channel Orange; Section.80 and good kid; So Far Gone and Thank Me Later... well, the list goes on.

There is a marked stylistic difference here, though. What was in 2011 a very hushed, sensual and subtle Tesfaye is now collaborating with French house giant Kavinsky, and getting remixes from Pharrell. After signing with Republic Records in 2012, he started to drop that whole shy-from-the-public shtick, too, so perhaps some of the allure behind his mixtapes has evaporated. Whatever it is, let's try and find some of that appeal here.

A too-loud-to-be-chillwave gets the car running with 'Professional', which might work if we hadn't had a significantly better two-part song about the pitfalls of being in love with an escort/prostitute, sung by a hot new R&B dude in the past 12 months. That said, towards the end it picks up a pretty nice beat and would maybe have better succeeded had this industrial influence been drawn upon further. There's a pretty unpleasant smack of arrogance about 'The Town', a totally bland track that finds Abel counting upon the so-called fact that "You're always free/ that you'll take me in/ now I'm everything, your everything/ I bet you'll take me in". Not the most romantic tour de force I've seen. On 'Adaptation' he bemoans present company, writing off models and groupies as "adapted to the bottle... they take it down like water just to burn away their sorrows". That doesn't stop him, though, as he vows to "stay up 'til tomorrow/ just to tear down all their morals". 

Commonplace lyrical faux pas aside, Kiss Land is a fascinating stylistic progression: the Portishead machine gun drum sample on 'Belong to the World', teamed with nice strings, is an inspired concoction. The second half of the title track, too, is a twinkling, bewitching atmosphere. Largely, though, Kiss Land favours the synthesized and slick approach: 'Love in the Sky' has elements of new wave guitars and plays around with rain sound effects whilst promising to make you cum three times in a row. Such moments push the album into parodical territory, and it's difficult not to feel second-hand anxiety in such instances. It's surprising Drake is so approving of someone so readily misogynistic - on their second collaboration now, 'Live For', Tesfaye finds himself "kissing bitches in the club/ they wanna threesome and then some/ spend whatever come in, fuck an income" - but nonetheless, the track is a highlight just for Drake's performance alone. And, back to production, 'Wanderlust' is an all-out pop song. Just not a terribly interesting one.

The problem is that Kiss Land is a thorough undoing of a character that never really existed: the self-assured cuntishness of the title track is appalling to hear ("I'll admit, baby, I'm a little camera shy/ But exceptions can be made baby cause you're too damn fly" is probably the least profane boast). On 'Pretty' he expects a girl to "know that when I land, you're mine" after a year of touring (and the only let-up that we're supposed to find charming is that this girl is pretty). The closing track, 'Tears in the Rain', does a little recompensation with the telling line "don't show the world how alone you've become", but it serves as a rather insignificant and late acknowledgment.

Lovely music. Shitty person.

Rating: 5.5/10
Highlights: Belong to the World; Love in the Sky; Live For; Tears in the Rain
Avoid: The Town; Wanderlust; Adaptation; Pretty

Artwork Watch: More '90s-cult-movie-inspired designs. Fewer shots of the artist. Plz.
For fans of: Prince; Frank Ocean; Usher  
Up next: Washed Out