The Weeknd dropped his highly anticipated Dawn FM album on Friday, but I am not sure how to feel about it. Sure, The Weeknd has some really great music and is an original thinker when it comes to his music, but this album couldn’t help but feel repetitive. Though it sounded similar to his last album After Hours, the message was different.

Lyrically this album has its moments where it’s repetitive and where it’s new and original. Production-wise it is definitely not new. The beats are very 70s and 80s which isn’t new for The Weeknd to use in his music. Despite its lack of originality, it does sound good. Now, when it comes to music videos and such, The Weeknd takes the cake. His music videos are his artistic expression coming out in full. They are really cool videos.

My favorites from the album were “Less Than Zero,” “Don’t Break My Heart,” and “Here We Go…Again” featuring Tyler, the Creator. These were my favorites because they were the best sounding and had the most original lyrics out of all the others on the album. “Here We Go…Again” was a pretty funny song too, especially Tyler’s part. 

This album was clearly all about healing for The Weeknd. If you have listened to his last album After Hours, then you know that he moved on and healed from a lot of things in his life in this album. In fact, I couldn’t help but notice some parallels in “Faith” from After Hours and “Gasoline.” He even references it  in the line “I’m trying not to lose my faith,” which is what the song “Faith” is basically all about.

Honestly, I liked this album but it felt hollow, like it lacked some emotional component. It didn’t feel like a Weeknd album. It didn’t even feel like he worked on it hard enough. The only thing I can compare it to is Ariana Grande’s 2020 album Positions. Sometimes it feels like artists just don’t out enough effort into their work and its notable. It’s not a bad album, it’s just not his best.