Patrick Kane
Veteran
I know that is a huge statement and maybe I'll try to justify it a little.
The Weeknd's debut album, Kissland, in my opinion is a modern day masterpiece. The skillful attempt by Abel to infuse his music with different genres of music while still making brilliant R&B music in his own unique way. If you listen closely, you can actually see how heavily influenced Abel is by R. Kelly and Michael Jackson but he still incorporates a band like Portishead or the singer Emika in his music. Throughout this, in every song, he's painting a picture of his perception on his current lifestyle. Who he is today. He makes this evident on the song Kiss Land: "I'm into shows every night, if you play your cards right, I might, fukk around and bring your whole crew on tour, fukk around and turn you into my West Coast girl." Now if you're anything like me and you had the opportunity to travel the world with your best friends, make hundreds of thousands dollars a night and fukk with the most beautiful women you could never possibly dream of, beautiful Cali women at that, you would do it. Well, this is Abel's life.
Prior to listening to Kiss Land, I liked the first three mixtapes. House of Balloons, like most people and the rest were just cool. I really didn't have high expectations for this album. For some reason, I didn't think he would be able to create the same kind of magic he made with Doc McKinney and lllangelo. But Kiss Land was different. I realized this was Abel trying to expand himself as an artist. Working with new producers, creating a new sound, but still his own unique sound. I read in an interview that the Weeknd was also heavily influenced by movies like Akira, Blade Runner and Enter the Void and if you've seen these movies, if you listen closely, you can hear their sounds throughout. That's what, in my opinion, made this album so great. All of the sounds Abel incorporates in his music. I'll use the song Kiss Land again as an example to prove this. The next time you're listening to this while you're driving or on the subway with good headphones, listen to the break at 3:21 where Abel says, "Don't hold back.. let it out... " and then it's followed by screams. Then the beats changing and it suddenly feels like the music is getting darker and at 3:47 and the beat drops, you soon hear Abel show you another glimpse of his world. The cinematic themes that Abel displays throughout the album are what makes it shine.
Music is supposed to take you on a journey. It's supposed to let you think sometimes and open your mind to what this so called artist is saying. You give them a chance to prove themselves, to you, in your own world. When you listen to some of the very best artist, their creativity and at times, just raw talent and emotion leads to the most compelling music you will ever hear. On Kiss Land, the Weeknd delivered that. The album is riddled with life situation, after life situation but displaying such cadence and rhythmic elements. This is also done in a cinematic way with the production playing the backdrop and skillful songwriting that highlights the themes of the album. An example of this mixing and production would be at the 0:16 mark of Adaptation as the song ends and begins with Love In The Sky.
At 1:24 on Love In The Sky, its raining and if you listen closely to the background, you'll hear one of the highlights of the album in terms of songwriting and production. Abel begins telling his story of traveling the world and finally making his way back to a lover he once had. Obviously someone worth going back to. He's nice enough to ask her how she's feeling, mostly how she feels to see him back and then tells her how he's been living since he's been gone. "As for me, I've been flying around the world, I've been killing these shows but I'm always getting high cause my confidence low, and I'm always in a rush, ain't no time to fukk slow." While Abel sings this, the rain is beginning to pick up in the background and the sound of thunder before the storm. At 0:11, he finishes his verse and it rains for the remainder of the track before the lightening bolt booms into Belong To The World displaying the brilliant mixing and production. These small details show you an artist that actually takes time with his craft. In addition to this, it shows another aspect of the cinematic themes of the album.
Kiss Land is a place that Abel attempts to take the listener to show you his newfound fame that revolves around money, drugs and women. A world he displays to the listener in a visual form where you see the materialism, greed, lust, and excess, and the ways in which he embraces it as he tries to find himself. As much as we all do try to accomplish our goals and become as successful as we possibly can, along this way we are all trying to find ourselves to become that person we want to be. During this, every aspect of your life is affected and what you consume can alter this. On Kiss Land, women play heavily into this consumption. Whether it be Abel singing about embracement of his new life as The Weeknd but still regretting a past love on Tears In The Rain. "They all feel the same... adjust to the fame, cause no one will love you like her, it's pointless, like tears in the rain." He sings on the opening lines of the hook. Fame also plays an increasingly large role throughout the album and in Tears In The Rain, Abel makes that clear: "When it's said and done, you were better off, you deserve real love and I deserve to be myself.. cause I've gone too far and I've started too young to keep up. And if even I changed, it would be too late, I exposed my ways, now every girl's the same... " Here, I think was another brilliant display of the albums songwriting as it plays heavily into the main themes of the album.
Overall, I think Abel delivered one of the first modern day masterpieces of our generation as he was able to release a collection of music to a large mass of people, while selling relatively well. Also staying true to his organic sound but still continuing to grow as an artist. Abel is a very rare artist that you will see at the mainstream level who will always push the boundaries musically but still create very likable and enjoyable music. In his first attempt with Kiss Land, the Weeknd proved just that.
The Weeknd's debut album, Kissland, in my opinion is a modern day masterpiece. The skillful attempt by Abel to infuse his music with different genres of music while still making brilliant R&B music in his own unique way. If you listen closely, you can actually see how heavily influenced Abel is by R. Kelly and Michael Jackson but he still incorporates a band like Portishead or the singer Emika in his music. Throughout this, in every song, he's painting a picture of his perception on his current lifestyle. Who he is today. He makes this evident on the song Kiss Land: "I'm into shows every night, if you play your cards right, I might, fukk around and bring your whole crew on tour, fukk around and turn you into my West Coast girl." Now if you're anything like me and you had the opportunity to travel the world with your best friends, make hundreds of thousands dollars a night and fukk with the most beautiful women you could never possibly dream of, beautiful Cali women at that, you would do it. Well, this is Abel's life.
Prior to listening to Kiss Land, I liked the first three mixtapes. House of Balloons, like most people and the rest were just cool. I really didn't have high expectations for this album. For some reason, I didn't think he would be able to create the same kind of magic he made with Doc McKinney and lllangelo. But Kiss Land was different. I realized this was Abel trying to expand himself as an artist. Working with new producers, creating a new sound, but still his own unique sound. I read in an interview that the Weeknd was also heavily influenced by movies like Akira, Blade Runner and Enter the Void and if you've seen these movies, if you listen closely, you can hear their sounds throughout. That's what, in my opinion, made this album so great. All of the sounds Abel incorporates in his music. I'll use the song Kiss Land again as an example to prove this. The next time you're listening to this while you're driving or on the subway with good headphones, listen to the break at 3:21 where Abel says, "Don't hold back.. let it out... " and then it's followed by screams. Then the beats changing and it suddenly feels like the music is getting darker and at 3:47 and the beat drops, you soon hear Abel show you another glimpse of his world. The cinematic themes that Abel displays throughout the album are what makes it shine.
Music is supposed to take you on a journey. It's supposed to let you think sometimes and open your mind to what this so called artist is saying. You give them a chance to prove themselves, to you, in your own world. When you listen to some of the very best artist, their creativity and at times, just raw talent and emotion leads to the most compelling music you will ever hear. On Kiss Land, the Weeknd delivered that. The album is riddled with life situation, after life situation but displaying such cadence and rhythmic elements. This is also done in a cinematic way with the production playing the backdrop and skillful songwriting that highlights the themes of the album. An example of this mixing and production would be at the 0:16 mark of Adaptation as the song ends and begins with Love In The Sky.
At 1:24 on Love In The Sky, its raining and if you listen closely to the background, you'll hear one of the highlights of the album in terms of songwriting and production. Abel begins telling his story of traveling the world and finally making his way back to a lover he once had. Obviously someone worth going back to. He's nice enough to ask her how she's feeling, mostly how she feels to see him back and then tells her how he's been living since he's been gone. "As for me, I've been flying around the world, I've been killing these shows but I'm always getting high cause my confidence low, and I'm always in a rush, ain't no time to fukk slow." While Abel sings this, the rain is beginning to pick up in the background and the sound of thunder before the storm. At 0:11, he finishes his verse and it rains for the remainder of the track before the lightening bolt booms into Belong To The World displaying the brilliant mixing and production. These small details show you an artist that actually takes time with his craft. In addition to this, it shows another aspect of the cinematic themes of the album.
Kiss Land is a place that Abel attempts to take the listener to show you his newfound fame that revolves around money, drugs and women. A world he displays to the listener in a visual form where you see the materialism, greed, lust, and excess, and the ways in which he embraces it as he tries to find himself. As much as we all do try to accomplish our goals and become as successful as we possibly can, along this way we are all trying to find ourselves to become that person we want to be. During this, every aspect of your life is affected and what you consume can alter this. On Kiss Land, women play heavily into this consumption. Whether it be Abel singing about embracement of his new life as The Weeknd but still regretting a past love on Tears In The Rain. "They all feel the same... adjust to the fame, cause no one will love you like her, it's pointless, like tears in the rain." He sings on the opening lines of the hook. Fame also plays an increasingly large role throughout the album and in Tears In The Rain, Abel makes that clear: "When it's said and done, you were better off, you deserve real love and I deserve to be myself.. cause I've gone too far and I've started too young to keep up. And if even I changed, it would be too late, I exposed my ways, now every girl's the same... " Here, I think was another brilliant display of the albums songwriting as it plays heavily into the main themes of the album.
Overall, I think Abel delivered one of the first modern day masterpieces of our generation as he was able to release a collection of music to a large mass of people, while selling relatively well. Also staying true to his organic sound but still continuing to grow as an artist. Abel is a very rare artist that you will see at the mainstream level who will always push the boundaries musically but still create very likable and enjoyable music. In his first attempt with Kiss Land, the Weeknd proved just that.
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dont ever disrespect the young god abel again in your life, just released a masterpiece and on his way to become a new legend
