Cocaine! Torontonian sex-jammer Abel Tesfaye combined moody dream-pop samples with the Ethopian music that soundtracked his youth to become The Weeknd: a purveyor of glassy-eyed cum-soaked nihilistic R&B that set the indiesphere on fire in the early 10s with the ‘House of Balloons’ trilogy of underground EPs. After a flailing start with 2013’s flat ‘Kiss Land’, he made the leap to Super Bowl-level stardom with ‘Beauty Behind The Madness’ in 2015. Featuring collaborations with Max Martin, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Ray and Kanye West, it established Tesfaye as the non-sexless non-white actually-good counterpart to Justin Timberlake’s beige-fisted domination of mainstream party music.
‘Beauty Behind The Madness’ is also #442 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Christopher and Liam discuss everything from why Ed Sheeran deserves to die, to The Weeknd’s recent 2022 record ‘Dawn FM’. All that plus Secret Posho, Tattoo Woohoo/Tattoo Boohoo, the Bette Midler Factor, and so much more. Enjoy An Album. Enjoy!