The Weeknd, as the Internet likes to call it, "pulled a Beyoncé" this week, as he dropped a surprise album with only a cryptic Instagram tease preceding it. Titled My Dear Melancholy, the six-track set is the first album from the artist since 2016's massively successful Starboy (he was also featured on this year's Black Panther soundtrack). The digital art is moodily shot, the 28-year-old's filtered face obscured in darkness, and, in tandem with the title, seemed to signal that this was going to be a bit of a grim affair.
And indeed, now that the record is out in the world, it's confirmed: there is no full-throttle shimmering buoyant "Starboy" amongst these songs. (The titles themselves elucidate the mood here: "Wasted Times," "Hurt You," you get the drift.) And in the grand tradition of Confessional Albums from Famous Pop Stars, a great deal of the immediate commentary has been related to deductions as to who these songs are about.
For those who need a quick Weeknd-dating-history refresher, he was involved with Selena Gomez for about 10 months before they split in October 2017 (she would later reunite with her ex Justin Bieber). Prior to dating Gomez, he dated supermodel Bella Hadid for more than a year.
It's not tough to figure out which songs are about which ex-girlfriend, as The Weeknd provides enough concrete references to make Red-era Taylor Swift seem downright abstract.
Let's start with the opening track, "Call Out My Name" (which is going to take us a few days to not initially scan as "Call Me by Your Name" when we see the name). This one begins with the lines: "We found each other / I helped you out of a broken place / You gave me comfort / But falling for you was my mistake." Probably about Gomez? Seems to be pretty standard Dwelling on an Ex fare. But then in the second verse we get what would seem to be confirmation, an apparent reference to Gomez's recent kidney transplant. "I said I didn't feel nothing baby, but I lied / I almost cut a piece of myself for your life," he sings. And then the song moves on to, yes, a Justin Bieber allusion: "Guess I was just another pit stop / Til you made up your mind / You just wasted my time." (Unfortunately, it would seem the song "went to the presses" before the Weekend had time to work in a reference to Bieber's apparent new flame, the delightfully named Baskin Champion.)
Hadid gets a song of her own, too. "Wasted Times" is about, you guessed it, wasted time spent with someone else ("Wasted times I spent with someone else," are indeed the lyrics; he goes on, "She wasn't even half of you"). After contemplating whom this ex might have moved on to ("Who you give that love to now?"), he then makes it clear he is singing about Hadid: "You were equestrian, so ride it like a champion," he sings. Hadid famously rides horses! (This is basically like C.S.I.: Pop Stars we are working through right now.)
It is slightly less clear who he is referring to on the last track, "Privilege," though People and other outlets assume it's Gomez yet again. "Enjoyed your privileged life / 'Cause I'm not gonna hold you through the night / We said our last goodbyes / So let's just try to end it with a smile / And I don't want to hear that you are suffering / You are suffering no more / 'Cause I held you down when you were suffering / You were suffering." (Others have decided this one is about Hadid, though: some mysteries remain!)
In all likelihood, we are in for rebuttals in all sorts of forms. Be on the lookout for cryptic Hadid Instagram captions, response tracks from Gomez when her next album drops, and, of course, monotone discourses from Justin Bieber to TMZ cameramen as he shirtlessly ambles off a basketball court or out of a club.
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