The Weeknd after what was coming up on two years since his last album After Hours dropped, dropped his newest album Dawn FM. This may be The Weeknd’s most creative release up to this point in his career, with creative interludes and outros to songs it allows more of an immersive experience to the album.

          Track one, Dawn FM, is a simple intro track, however, it sounds fantastic even though the lyrical portion of it was very slight. The end of the track shows you the outro aspect of the album which resembles the album itself as a radio station, “Just relax and enjoy another hour of commercial (Free yourself) music on 103.5 Dawn FM”. Track two, Gasoline, has an interesting start with The Weeknd’s vocal pitch being much different than usual. The Weeknd usually has a high pitch singing voice, he changes it for the majority of this track having it lower and not singing for the most part. I liked this switch-up as it caught me off guard and in the process, I found it quite enjoyable. Track three, How Do I Make You Love Me?, wastes no time going back to The Weeknd’s usual vocal style over an eighties style instrumental which becomes a recurring theme across the album. This track is fantastic and easily one of my favorites on the album without a doubt. Track four, Take My Breath, was the lead single coming into this album and it set the scene for how the album would sound stylistically. This track is fantastic too with the hook being catchy as usual and the dance vibe fitting it perfectly. Track five, Sacrifice, is another great track to start the album with. It sounds very similar to Take My Breath especially with the guitar, but the hook is nowhere near the same and is once again the standout piece of this track. 

           Track six, A Tale By Quincy, is a deep interlude that speaks on how a man named Quincy didn’t have a mother from a young age. Leading him to treat women wrongfully and sustain a relationship with them. I think the choice of this to be on the album puts you in The Weeknd’s mind as his lyrics relate heavily to this idea as well. Track seven, Out Of Time, slows things down from the upbeat and in-your-face instrumentation of earlier in the album to a slower song. This track is nice and slow and a solid track to slow down the pace of the album. Track eight, Here We Go… Again (feat. Tyler The Creator), The Weeknd does a fantastic job on this song with his vocal talent just showing off even more on this track with it being slow with not much of an instrumental to cover up the vocals. Tyler, although not having the vocals like The Weeknd does a solid job on this track and makes for a good feature to the album. Track nine, Best Friends, is probably one of the more lyrically toxic songs on the album. That to me makes that song another one of the great ones as The Weeknd goes in lyrically on this track and shows his ability as usual to do that. Track ten, Is There Someone Else? This is another classic The Weeknd song with a great hook, great vocals and the sample on this song adds to it. 

            Track eleven, Starry Eyes, is a very atmospheric song in the best words I can put it. With very little instrumental, so once more on this album The Weeknd shows off his remarkable vocals which show out on this track the most out of any I feel. Track twelve, Every Angel Is Terrifying, is a cinematic interlude that once more puts the radio aspect of the story to the forefront. Fans have also speculated that this song may be previewing The Weeknd’s next album, with this being almost a commercial to it. But that’s just baseless speculation up to this point. Track thirteen, Don’t Break My Heart, is probably one of my least favorites on the album. This isn’t me calling it bad but it’s really nothing special and probably won’t be anything I return to regularly. Track fourteen, Heard You’re Married (feat. Lil Wayne), is a great track where The Weeknd once again vocally shines. The hook on this track like most The Weeknd songs is nice and Lil Wayne shocked me by really delivering on a track that I would not expect him to ever be on. Track fifteen, Less Than Zero, is my favorite track on the album for sure. The guitar on this track adds a nice vibe to this track. The hook, instrumental, and vocals all blend perfectly together making this a fantastic track I’ll be hooked on for a while. Track sixteen, Phantom Regret by Jim, is the outro to this album and it’s another interlude kind of track. Spoken by Jim Carey who did a majority of the interludes on this album, he does a great job of getting the dark vibe across and setting up each part of the album perfectly. The final words of the album are also quite deep, these words being “You gotta be heaven to see heaven, may peace be with you”.

           Dawn FM is a really solid album in my opinion although there have been mixed opinions all across the internet right now. The idea of the album is cool and something I haven’t seen replicated in music from what I can remember. Although I feel The Weeknd shines on a more dark side of music and not the eighties vibe I enjoyed most tracks and the album overall. I’m gonna give this one an 8.5/10, it’s an album I recommend especially if you like a more eighties style of music.