LOS ANGELES - Toronto’s Abel Tesfaye's aka The Weeknd dropped his latest album “After Hours” on Friday, March 20th.  His fourth studio album arrives four years after his 2016’s “Starboy” which won a Grammy for best urban contemporary album. 

The 14 track album also comes two years after The Weeknd’s “My Dear Melancholy” EP.

The Canadian R&B singer teased the album by dropping various singles, including “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights”. He was on SNL two weeks ago and performed an unreleased song “Scared to Live” which got fans even more excited about the release of the album. 

After Hours Tracklist:

  1. Alone Again
  2. Too Late
  3. Hardest To Love
  4. Scared To Live
  5. Snowchild
  6. Escape From LA
  7. Heartless
  8. Faith
  9. Blinding Lights
  10. In Your Eyes
  11. Save Your Tears
  12. Repeat After Me (Interlude)
  13. After Hours
  14. Until I Bleed Out

With the rollout of After Hours it balances The Weeknd’s earlier persona of being mysterious and enigmatic with his new found pop star label. The album has various collaborators working with The Weeknd such as Max Martin, Metro Boomin, Uncut Gems composer Daniel Loptain (aka Oneohtrix Point Never). The songs give a mix of 80’s/90’s era music combined with The Weeknd’s emotions and feelings. Also it  would not be a Weeknd album if he didn’t sing about drugs and lust which are common themes throughout his music. 

The Weeknd’s After Hours blends 80’s synth-pop and vibe to his emotional lyrics about the struggles and hardships he has faced in his life such as his on again and off again relationships with Bella Hadid. The Weeknd reflects on their relationship and subtly refers to it on tracks like “Snowchild”, “Scared to Live”, “Save Your Tears” and “Hardest to Love”. Also The Weeknd includes various movie references sprinkled throughout different songs such as in “Escape From LA”, “Snowchild” and “Faith”.

Earlier this month The Weeknd shared The After Hours short film on his youtube channel to make fans eager to the anticipating release of his album.

Just before the midnight release of the album, The Weeknd started a countdown via his Twitter account for fans who have been waiting a long time for him to release this album. Despite everyone around the world going into self-isolation due to the coronavirus, fans were thrilled that in these hard times they got to celebrate the new album with him. 

Just as The Weeknd said in a press statement “Let the music heal us all during these dark times.” 

As of now The Weeknd's After Hours tour is still going to happen but the tour might be re-scheduled amid coronavirus outbreak. 

Here are some Twitter fan reactions to The Weeknd’s After Hours album:

 

Stream The Weeknd’s “After Hours” on all streaming platforms.