Dawn FM Review

In this article, Peter reviews the album Dawn FM.

Dawn FM: A Jazzy Review by a High Schooler

By: Peter Easterwood

The Weeknd, also known by his name Abel Tesfaye, is an R&B artist from Toronto, Canada who came onto the music scene releasing three mixtapes, House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. The first album, House of Balloons was released on Mar. 21, 2011. This single album changed the landscape of R&B forever. The dark and graphic lyrics he sings about were a switch from the smooth, cheesy, lovey-dovey lyrics that R&B followed at the time. With these lyrics came a grimy, foggy beat, and mixing that followed all three of the albums. He did not follow the regular club-based R&B that gained popularity through the years. He went on to release six albums after the three mixtapes, includingTrilogy (all three of the mixtapes combined, cleaned up, and three added songs), Kiss Land (his debut studio album), Beauty Behind the Madness (first album gaining Grammy nominations), Starboy, After Hours, and his latest album Dawn FM.

From New Fury Media

Before After Hours and Dawn FM, The Weeknd released an EP on Mar. 30, 2018, called My Dear Melancholy, following his Pop and R&B route, but a darker side of it. He Sings about heartbreak, drug abuse, and death. This EP followed the breakup between Tesfaye and Selena Gomez. The album came off as a gateway for him to just release all the sadness he was holding in, having one mainstream hit named “Call Out My Name.” He then went back to the drawing board, thinking of a new sound for his next album. The stretch from Beauty Behind the Madness to My Dear Melancholy came off as a more mainstream R&B/Pop album. He needed a change, that is when on March 20, 2020 he released After Hours.

After Hours is arguably his biggest album since Beauty Behind the Madness, but After Hours followed the old 80’s Synth Pop/R&B. After Hours tells the story of his character's adventure through love and heartbreak, and succumbs to his character's eventual death. The album was not left under the radar. Even though it deals with dark themes, it broke records, with “Blinding Lights” being the biggest hit. The song destroyed Billboard's Top 100, with the most weeks spent on the top 5 and 10 lists, as well as being the first song to spend a whole year at the top 10. With all of the worldwide acclaim of After Hours, and this newfound sound The Weeknd just implemented in his work, it almost seemed impossible to top it. However, he did top it, releasing Dawn FM on Jan. 7, 2022, following the same route and story as After Hours, but with the songs being more consistent.

From 95.7 ELMNT FM

Throughout all of After Hours, The Weeknd told the story of heartbreak, ending with death. Now, Dawn FM became the next chapter-- the character's journey after death. He is in an infinite amount of darkness, a sort of purgatory between life and death. The intro track pulls listeners into this story, featuring Jim Carrey voicing as the radio host trying to lead Tesfaye into the light. During the intro track, Jim Carrey says, “You've been in the dark for way too long. It's time to walk into the light. And accept your fate with open arms.” After the intro, the album blasts into the song “Gasoline”, a song about him and his lover dealing with his thoughts about death, and how he does not care much about himself as much as he should. There is a five-song stretch (this could be six, but an interlude doesn’t count) where it is just banger on top of banger, going from “Gasoline” a slow song, to a more upbeat song “How Do I Make You Love Me?” The upbeat pace continues through this stretch until the album reaches “Here We Go Again.”

After “Here We Go Again,” the album dips in consistency, with two good songs called “Best Friends” and “Is There Someone Else?”, transitioning into one of the most useless songs, “Starry Eyes.” The song itself starts fun, with a slow synth playing in the back at the start. The character speaks about the need for a girl he did not think he would even want. With this, he just constantly talks about how she can do anything she wants to him, whether it be good or bad. This is the liability of the song, “Let me love you, let me love you like you need. And you can kick me, kick me to the curb.” This lyric is the most bleh of the entire song. The character tries to push the fact that he does not care about what happens, but it just comes off as lazy with the constant repetition. The background instruments and vocals come off too dramatic compared to the lyrics themselves. Talking about dramatic, this is where “Every Angel is Terrifying” comes in-- a useless interlude.

The interlude is just cheesy, with a “public statement” coming from Teafaye with no context, that transitions into an “advertisement” talking about a product named After Life. It tries to bring on the aesthetic that it is an actual radio show, but it just is not as cool as he thought it would have been. What follows is the song “Don’t Break My Heart”, a pretty good song, following the same 80’s synth-pop sound that the album uses. It’s self-explanatory through its title. It is Tesfaye talking to this girl he is in love with. He tells her not to break his heart and, if it were to occur, he probably would not be able to take it anymore. After this track, “I Heard You're Married” comes on, with a feature by Lil Wayne. It is a weird feature, with Lil Wayne’s grainy voice coming onto a synth-pop track, causing the listener to think, It probably won’t work.

It doesn’t work. Lil Wayne’s voice is not the bad part of his feature, either. Actually, it fits better than expected. What he says on the song is the bad part: “You put my love on the line and hang up on you. That's a long kiss goodbye, I gotta tongue kiss you.” He constantly makes the stalest statements to a love- turned-heartbreak song. It just does not add anything to the song, and actually pulls it down to a lower level. The song itself is about the reaction The Weeknd's character has to find the girl he loves, who is actually hiding her marriage from him. Tesfaye is actually in the opposite position, going from being the heartbreaker to being heartbroken. He has been used, but should not feel bad for himself, since he has done the same to others.

From Reddit

The last song of Dawn FM, “Less Than Zero” is actually a big switch from the whole album, still using synths, but at a slower pace. Most of the album gives off a dance/club vibe, but this song brings listeners down. The speaker is lost. He does not know how to move on from his love; he finds himself to be less than zero. The Weeknd hints at the couple's similarities in relationships. The male character can’t help himself from the lust he gets from the secret relationships he’s had with others, but he tries to hide it, like his now-ex. He is willing to meet in the middle with her. They can both live the same lives they have, but it hurts him too much to see the one he loves cheating. The piano synths then transition into an acoustic guitar, with The Weeknd singing, “I'll always be less than zero. You tried your best with me, I know.”

Jim Carrey tells a poem, which pretty much summarizes The Weeknd's character transition from life to death. Tesfaye could not come to peace with himself or his past, causing his soul to be trapped in this purgatory by himself. Carrey questions Teafaye’s actions when something went wrong: “And how many grudges did you take to your grave? When you weren't liked or followed, how did you behave?” However, the ending of the album seems to have come to a depressing end, with The Weeknd now stuck. Carrey gives him inspiration to find that peace he needs to move onto heaven, “In other words. You gotta be Heaven to see Heaven. May peace be with you.”

Overall, Dawn FM stays consistent, but with the lowest of lows being in the later half of the album the score goes down. I really enjoyed the first half, a definite 9.6/10, with the consistent upbeat synth keeping my attention. The second half just lacks those elements sometimes. With the cheesy interlude, the unneeded transitional song from “Is There Someone Else?” to “Starry Eyes” only scores at a 7.3/10. This is a tough score to give, as a lover of The Weeknd, and a lover of his switch. However, with the consistency issues showing in the second half, I rate the album an 8.4/10.

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