(Paris) The maker of success surprises again: the Canadian The Weeknd invites the actor Jim Carrey on an ambitious disc which pays homage to the FM band and to its idols, like Michael Jackson or Prince.
Posted at 11:02 a.m.
The artist caught everyone by surprise on his way out Dawn FM the first week of January, without upstream promotion.
It is customary to step sideways, the only resident at the top of the charts to drop a disc (After Hours) in March 2020, in full global confinement, when its competitors postponed their releases.
Result, its title Blinding Lights has recorded more than 2.7 billion plays on Spotify, the leading music platform on the market. And The Weeknd had performed at halftime of the Super Bowl in 2021, a sequence reserved for the stars in this major event of sport and television in the United States.
SCREENSHOT
Dawn FM, The Weeknd
With him, we always push the door to a strange universe, between shadow and light. Everything is there on this “Dawn FM”, since the album begins with the voice of Jim Carrey, in the role of the radio host. It even gives a fictitious frequency, 103.5, before the first songs fuse, resolutely turned towards the club atmosphere of the 1980s.
Here is a beautiful concept-album, with a story that unfolds over the songs. It is “a guy in his car who is in full purgatory and who listens to the FM band while hoping to see the end of the tunnel”, decrypts for AFP Jim Zelechowski, artistic director at Island / Def Jam.
Telescope buds
“It’s a metaphor for the present day, people who are waiting for this end of the tunnel”, continues this manager, who adds: “Jim Carrey and him are enough friends, neighbors, The Weeknd asked him to do this voiceover “.
The meeting between the two stars is surreal. After contacting each other on social media, they discover that they live a few houses apart in Los Angeles. “We looked out the window, with our telescopes, and we saw each other,” said the musician in GQ.
Through the voice of the actor The Mask Where Man on the moon, The Weeknd opens its vinyl cabinets and makes its references heard. Jim Carrey makes “allusions to Prince, quotes Purple rain and When Doves Cry Jim Zelechowski notes.
Listening to the titles confirms the sources of inspiration. “In the album we can hear rhythm machines characteristic of Prince on Purple rain Where Lovesexy », Explains the artistic director. And also to report “Depeche Mode on Gasoline, and a slower track, the one with Tyler The Creator, reminiscent of a lesser-known Stevie Wonder Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants “.
But the biggest influence remains Michael Jackson and Thriller, even “in the construction of the album, with the dynamic titles at the beginning, which are linked in the same rhythms, and the softer then, with the same harmonies”, portrays Jim Zelechowski again.
“Mark of the great”
“Michael is someone I admire. He’s not a real person, you see? When I started music, that’s what I aspired to ”, confesses moreover in GQ Abel Tesfaye, name of the star in civil status. He created a beautiful evil double with The Weeknd, a creature with a broken nose in the visuals of the previous album and prematurely aged for those of Dawn FM.
The gateways are visible: actor Vincent Price, known for horror films in the 50s and 60s, lent his voice to the song Thriller. This is Jim Carrey.
Les Daft Punk (with whom The Weeknd sang on the hit I Feel It Coming) offered a spoken passage from their idol Giorgio Moroder (on Random Access Memories). The Canadian does the same with Quincy Jones. The illustrious producer who worked with Michael Jackson introduces the second part of the album, more melancholy.
“It’s a deep, thoughtful album and at the same time it remains pop à la Michael Jackson”, synthesizes Jim Zelechowski.
At 31, The Weeknd is rooted in the international musical landscape. Elton John does not say anything else in Variety : “Abel has his own and unique artistic path, it is the mark of the great, of the artists who will last”.