Dawn FM

A decade after The Weeknd’s rise to fame, he has come out with one of his most futuristic sounding projects. This energetic and cavernous album is titled, Dawn FM. Right off the bat, the album is a story in itself from beginning to end. It’s almost like listening to a contemporary radio station where you are stuck in purgatory while slowly reaching the end of the tunnel, in other words, death.

Narrated by Jim Carry, the album starts off with the song, “Dawn FM” as the intro song. Throughout the album, Carry plays a blissed-out radio DJ and parody commercials for the afterlife. After his intro, The Weeknd hits us with the wonders of, “Gasoline” droning in with a charming British accent, summarizing the entire album’s matrix vibe.

This album is full of catchy dance tracks, for example, the panoramic beats of, “How Do I Make You Love Me?”, the electronic haze of, “Take my breath” and then we have the meaningful song, “Sacrifice.” At the end of “Sacrifice” The Weeknd explains how he is someone who can’t be “fixed” and will never be the committed type. This is a great transition to the following song, “A Tale by Quincy.” Quincy Jones goes on to talk about how his childhood trauma impacted his adult relationships, then ends that track with, “Looking back is a [b word], isn’t it?”

Following that tack is, “Out of Time” which gives major Micheal Jackson vibes. We even get a sense of the classic Weeknd with “Here We Go….Again,” the track that starts and transitions into the song, “Best Friends.”

The beat then begins to relax as we get into “Is There Someone Else?” and “Starry Eyes” where he is in between love and overcoming it. We start getting upbeat again in “Every Angel is Terrifying” as well as in the next three tracks. One of those tracks being “Less than Zero,” where you realize Weeknd feels like he doesn't have any value in a relationship, therefore, he’ll “always be less than zero,” to him meaning life has no purpose.

The album finally ends with the poem, “Phantom Regret by Jim” to which completely wraps up the album. In this poem, it is almost like Carry urges listeners to self-reflect on their life. For example, “You gotta unwind your mind” and “Heaven’s for those who let go of regret,” implying that letting go is the way to a peaceful life. Jim Carry ends this last track with some fascinating words of wisdom, “you gotta be/ Heaven/ to see Heaven/ May peace be with you.”