Album Review: Another Masterpiece by Abel Tesfaye

You bet I was going to write about this album as soon as I was able to because I have been trying to listen to this every moment I can - when I wake up, when I shower, as I read, when I walk, as I sleep. Writing this has to be the only way to acknowledge the paragon of beauty and nostalgia that Abel Tesfaye has achieved with this project.

Since 2011, The Weeknd has been experimenting with his musicality and although he does maintain his distinct style of falsettos, crooning and dark RnB, each project is fundamentally dissimilar and has its own defining trademark. After Dawn FM, I look back at all of Abel’s previous projects and I think “This. This, is what he has been wanting to make for a long, long time.”

Having followed The Weeknd since 2015 and splurging on all his limited interviews, articles and vision, I am positive that he has wanted to explore this side of his musicality for a long, long time and it took him a whole decade to finally realise it in the form of his audience feeling and living through this very manifestation.

To truly appreciate how the Dawn FM vision has come to life, it’s important to go a long way back and look at what Abel has tried to do with his previous projects - they are always embedded with a thorough, developed concept. That is what sets Abel apart from other musicians in the industry. He is so concept-driven and builds castles and castles upon these foundations but the very fact that he is able to create with a simple concept and transform an idea of a sound to 16-20 sounds - that is phenomenal.

The reason this album is so special to not only Abel himself but the entire community who has supported him for a long time is because we know how inspired he is by the 80s and 90s. We know how much he strived to create and engrain the passion, aesthetic and sound of that era in his own music (hence the inclusion of many retro sounding synths and beats). And here we have Dawn FM, an 80s-sounding radio station with contemplative interludes, all those seamless transition for the likes of the Trilogy mixtape and Kiss Land fans” and a compilation of 16, complete tracks which take you back in time.

Teleportation. That was the vision of this album. Teleportation of the psyche and physical self in the current times of uncertainty, anxiety and physical and emotional isolation. Being a 00s born I fully resonate with this vision myself, I cannot imagine how liberating it must feel for the older fans. And Abel knew exactly what he was doing, he knew he had created a compilation of songs stringed carefully to heal and disassemble the chaos and I would like to validate him by saying that he has definitely done that for me.

From The Weeknd's YouTube Channel

Although I deeply love After Hours and it was my most-listened album of 2021 and still listen it to-date regularly, it feels depressing and too somber at times and gets me feeling uneasy. After Hours got me thinking Abel has finally achieved what he has to with the sense of music he’d like to unleash into the world. But after Dawn FM, I realise that he has sustained his dark sound but with happier undertones and energy - showing that his dream has been to make people happy after all. I desperately needed new music from this man and here it is. Happy music, nostalgia music driven with concept and passion. There’s Dawn FM.

4.5/5 stars - and although I did say this was perfect, some tracks just didn’t do it for me. I just have to skip Take My Breath and Every Angel Is Terrifying after the first mandatory listen, sorry.