Sin City's cold and empty
Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts
10/04/20 : After Hours - The Weeknd
Last time we visited the lad, I expressed a specific interest in listening to this album - which of course I totally failed to do, but I suspected it would happen on this exercise given time. And, oh look, here we are!
And yeah, it's not really my thing but I really liked it. "Blinding Lights" is an absolutely blinding track - it's proper quality, I tell you. And boy did it hang around the singles chart for ages - it managed 105 weeks when released, but (for no obvious reason) it's back in the lower reaches of the charts now on another 13 week run. And "Save Your Tears" is hardly shabby but it only managed 65 weeks on the charts though - the lad must have been gutted. The rest of the album isn't quite up to the quality of those tracks, but it all sounds pretty good - it's basically proper RnB that, in the past, everyone in the charts was churning out effortlessly but many fewer people do these days - and Mr Weeknd seems to do it far better than most. It's a pretty weird album cover though (Wikipedia tells me it's "red pigmented").
We're at #4 in the charts this week in his third week on the charts - and since then it's done OK, I guess. I mean it only managed a run of 75 weeks before dropping out. - I guess it tried, at least. Above him were (of course) Dua and Lewis but there were no new entries in the top 10 - the highest new entry this week was Thundercat at #23 (and let me assure you, that is one dreadful album). There was one re-entry in the top ten - the best of Bill Withers who was back in the charts as a result of his death. And he's a fascinating character whose albums are well worth checking out (here and here).
Wikipedia has far more on the album than I can be bothered reading - 445 milliPeppers, which is (I believe) the most we've had on a recent album so far. It does have a controversy section though, so obviously I checked that out and it was all to do with it not receiving any Grammy nominations - which does seem a little odd. The nicest suggested reason given was that there was confusion as to whether it was pop or RnB, but it feels like that was something that could possibly have been sorted out. I suspect it's more likely they just don't like Canadians being all that popular - and popular it was globally, except in South Korea where it only got to #73 (given that pretty much everywhere else it made the top 3).
"Customers also listened to" an odd mix - Glass Animals, Lil Nas X, Harry Styles and Post Malone - I guess this just shows that very few people are doing anything like The Weeknd, which possibly explains why he's so popular. And whilst I understand that not everyone will like this, I think most people can appreciate it's a well put together album - it's slick but not annoyingly so. And I like it - thanks Mr The Weeknd.
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