On Jan. 31, 2025, Abel Tesfaye, famously known as The Weeknd, released his sixth album titled, “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” The 22-track album is the third and last album in The Weeknd’s trilogy, “After Hours Til Dawn.” His previous two studio albums, “After Hours” and “Dawn F.M.”, were released in 2020 and 2022.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow” is the last album the artist will create under the name The Weeknd, marking an iconic 16-year musical journey. Through genres like synth-pop, R&B, Brazilian funk and hip-hop, the four-time Grammy winner’s latest album recaps the singer’s acceptance of his past life and ending as The Weeknd.
The Trilogy
“After Hours”, The Weeknd’s fourth album, tells the story of The Weeknd’s pain in life. As he goes through heartbreak, he discusses how the use of drugs, girls and alcohol has helped him detach from the world. Contradicting this, he also expresses his want to quit all of them altogether.
In his song “Until I Bleed Out,” The Weeknd mentions wanting to get off of drugs in his lyrics, “I don’t wanna touch the sky no more [get high], I just wanna feel the ground when I’m coming down ,it’s been way too long.” From loneliness, regret and escapism, The Weeknd tells a symbolic, messy story in just 14 songs.
In “Dawn F.M.”, Tesfay’s fifth album, is the second part of The Weeknd’s trilogy where he discusses the afterlife and healing from his traumatic experiences mentioned in “After Hours.”
Songs on “Dawn F.M.” differ from the violent beats and lyrics found in “After Hours,” featuring synth-pop, 1980s beats. He mentions REM sleep in his song Gasoline,” saying “I’m dozing off to REM, I’m trying not to lose my faith.” He also mentions heaven, sacrifices and alludes to purgatory in his third track “Out of Time,” saying “Heaven’s for those who let go of regret, and you have to wait here when you’re not all there yet.” The lyrics featured in “After Hours” seem to be metaphors for death.
The newest album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow” finishes up the trilogy with lyrics about accepting his past life and ending his journey as The Weeknd. The album brings his journey as The Weeknd to an end, preparing the world for his new life under Abel Tesfaye.
Analysis
On the sixth track, “Escape from LA,” The Weeknd talks about his unpleasant experiences in LA and his desperate want to leave.
“This place will be the end of me… Take me out of LA.” The artist says that LA is not what the media makes it out to be and that it will essentially be the death of him.
Ironically, in his song “Take Me Back to LA,” The Weeknd expresses his want to go back to a simpler, happier life in LA over a synth-pop melody.
“I left too young/Take me back to a time/The trophies that I had would still shine/Now I have nothing real left/I want my soul,” writes the artist on his 15th track. The Weeknd alludes that he needs to be out of LA in order to be better. He feels that he is lifeless now, and things that were once prized are now dull and almost meaningless. These things mean nothing now that he is no longer in LA.
In “Given Up On Me,” The Weeknd states that he has and always will lie to the media and his fans about being off drugs.
The Weeknd sings, “I’ve been lying to your faces, yeah/I’ve been always wasted, it’s too late to save me.” He expresses that there is essentially no saving him.
Similarly, in “Too Late” from his “After Hours” album, he talks about saying that it is “way too late” to save his soul. He asks why people won’t let him go, and says that he is “in too deep.”
“It’s way too late to save our souls, baby,” he sings, which is not the first time he has expressed his struggle to let go of drugs and women.
In “Big Sleep” The Weeknd recites the Christian 18th-century bedtime prayer “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.” The song starts with a mellow, dreamy atmosphere, but then switches to a glitchy, electronic rhythm.
The song symbolizes acceptance and themes like mortality and time. The transition from the lullaby-like melody, to a glitchy, almost uncomfortable beat connects with the lyrics, “Ready for the forever night/Big sleep, big sleep,” contemplating life, death and sleep.
In his last song “Final Lullaby” on his deluxe version of “After Hours,” The Weeknd says, “And I can’t make you stay/In this broken place.” The use of “sleep” in this context can also be a metaphor for death.
With haunting melodies and powerful and symbolic lyrics, The Weeknd deep dives into a beautiful mess of a story, ending his “After Hours Til Dawn” trilogy under the stage name “The Weeknd.”
