On the “My Dear Melancholy” EP, The Weeknd explores sadness, loss and nostalgia through six emotionally profound songs. The album presents a soft and minimalist sound that highlights his voice. Each song reflects a duality of feelings that coexist in the artist in a basic and emotional way, with a general feeling of melancholy.. This is a must have EP for anyone looking for an honest exploration into music.
A musical introduction of just over 35 seconds transports us to a gloomy prairie in a moment of backwater following the storm. In the distance, a man comes with a tired gait, with so much pain on his back that he can barely lift his figure. Dark reflections pass through his mind, however, and despite his sadness, he has his doubts well defined. He wants to know: what makes a man cry? What makes him want to take his own life? When will the time come when it stops hurting?
This is more or less the story of “I was never there”, a song divided into two parts: the first is the lament of a man whose life has become melancholic following losing a loved one; the second, the claim of self-love. It seems to be an obscure single in different fragments of its lyrics:
Oh, now that I know what love is / And I know it surely isn’t you / You’d rather be toxic / So I poison myself once more, once more / Until I feel nothing / In my soul (in my soul) / I’m in the edge of something breaking / I feel my mind slowly fading / If I keep going, I won’t make it…
But at the same time, his musicality is profoundly diegetic with the subject he addresses, as if the chosen notes and the chord progression were that slow flame where the mental abstraction process of The Weeknd in this production that they have unequivocally called “My Dear Melancholy”.
This is the Canadian artist’s fourth EP, and it was released in March 2018. The album is made up of six tracks covering themes such as sadness, loss, and nostalgia, and is dedicated to his ex-girlfriend, singer Selena Gomez. She wanted to donate part of one of her organs when she needed it, and she left it reflected in the song “Call Out My Name”:
I said I didn’t feel a thing, baby, but I lied / I almost cut a piece of myself for your life…
The overall tone of the album is dark and heavy, with songs that seem to be an unfiltered, personal look into the artist’s feelings. The Weeknd He once once more demonstrates his ability to write deep lyrics with songs like “Wasted Times”, from my point of view one of the best on the album:
So who do you belong to now? / Who do you give that love to now? / Who are you meeting? / Who are you attracted to now? / And what do they have that I don’t? / Because I have many things (I have many things) …
In this song, above all, and in the entire album in general, the duality of feelings that coexist in the artist and that are manifested in a basic way stands out. For example, as he himself drops all his pride in the midst of his obsession with the singer, he soars and inflates his self-esteem because “he has many things” (among them an innate musical and compositional talent).
Regarding the sound, the album presents a smooth and emotional sound, which moves away from the more experimental and electronic style of their previous albums. The artist employs a minimalist production style that highlights his voice, using primarily synths and bass-heavy drums to complement his smooth singing. The songs on the album are infused with musical elements such as ’90s R&B, electronic music, and alternative pop, creating a sense of melancholy and a cohesive listening experience.
All songs on this EP were composed by The Weeknd together with Frank Dukes, music producer associated with Hip-Hop and R&B artists such as Drake, Rihanna or Kanye West, among others. In this work, the Canadian returns to his musical roots and explores the sound of his first album “Kiss Land” or his previous ones. mixtapessince six o’clock is downtempoof a dark nature, with a scattered melody and framed within alternative R&B.
However, although “My Dear Melancholy” is an album that feels personal and intimate, it is also a work of great innovation. It features risks or surprising twists in production or musical style, making it easy to get caught up in a sense of whimsy along the way. Despite the fact that the lyrics and the general theme can seem clichéd at certain times, (sometimes pretentious and too in love with himself) it shows us that the lesser known songs of the artist, the less popular ones, still have a message of much strength, romanticism and universality.
And little by little, these “hidden” songs in the brilliant mantle of the mainstream they are like the humidity that is invading the gloomy prairie of an Anglo-Saxon musical ecosystem. The songs on “My Dear Melancholy” also dispel the doubts of those who listen to them. And that poison that at the time was love sorrows have been understood and have begun to heal, and when the right time is, it will no longer matter.
Related content for music-loving bohemians on the Horas Cantadas Telegram channel here:
Cover Design: Félix M. Azcuy
The entry The genius and melancholy in The Weeknd was first published in Bohemia Magazine.
