After Hours
| The Weeknd
After Hours
fter Hours is the fourth studio album by Canadian singer The Weeknd. The album was released by XO and Republic Records on March 20, 2020. The project has been supported by three singles: "Heartless", "Blinding Lights", and "In Your Eyes". One promotional single has been released as well, the album's title track. It is The Weeknd's first studio album since 2016's Starboy, following the release of the 2018 EP My Dear Melancholy. The project is his first studio album to have no featured artists. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
His epic breakup album feels right for our cold, lonely times.
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The Guardian
Abel Tesfaye is starting to show remorse for his failed relationships – but only a little bit – on this wonderfully varied yet cohesive record.
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Variety
But the fun ends as the ominous atmosphere returns and the album strikes its defining note with the pulsating title track and then, judging by the title and abrupt end of “Until I Bleed Out,” a presumably unhappy ending.
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DJ Booth
Although The Weeknd has made good and great albums before, what makes After Hours stand out, especially compared to its predecessor, is how the album is a convergence of ideas extending throughout the songwriting, musicality, and sequencing. This album is a calculated and cohesive world of synth-pop rhythms and lovelorn confessions.
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Pitchfork
For fans who look to the Weeknd for toxic bars about getting high and having sex, After Hours certainly won’t disappoint.
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NME
his most all-encompassing record to date is also an existential quandary.
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The Independent
Like Starboy, there’s a hefty Eighties influence here, although for the most part, After Hours abandons the danceability of its predecessor in favour of moody introspection. This is the music you listen to when the party’s over.
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Complex
He did it. The Weeknd has made it to a point in his career where he’s expected to deliver smash records and critically-acclaimed bodies of work that satisfy fans who hold on dearly to each of his stylistic eras. On After Hours, he accomplishes this exceedingly difficult task.
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Ratings Game Music
The singing on it is fantastic, the production on it is out-of-this-worldly, and the storylines you hear on it are beyond juicy.
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Stereogum
After Hours is everything you could realistically want a pop-superstar album to be. Tesfaye works within the boundaries of the aesthetic that he’s established, but he finds room for new sounds and ideas within those boundaries.
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Thirstkey
“After Hours” is the most cohesive work The Weeknd has released in years. I haven’t enjoyed a full Weeknd album this much since “Beauty Behind The Madness”.
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Standard
For us normals, his fourth album offers a particularly dark form of escapism during the great lock-in.
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Us Magazine
“I wanna cut you outta my dreams,” he concedes. And while that may be the case, there isn’t a song on After Hours worth cuttin
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Now Toronto
The hour-long LP often plays out like an experimental 80s fever dream, but it’s still anchored by The Weeknd’s broody sonic DNA.
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The Musical Hype
After Hours” is definitely a throwback for The Weekend; it sounds like his ultra-moody music of the past. At over six-minutes in length, it definitely runs long, but the vibe, vocal performance, and the production definitely compensate.
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Fever Magazine
Alongside being dark and moody, it is upbeat enough for a runway as well. Bopping back and forth beats has fans waiting for visuals.
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Diandra Reviews it All
After Hours feels like The Weeknd’s attempt to become 80’s style pimp in Jupiter. Sonically, it is trippy and gritty, cosmic and dirty, beautiful and heartbreaking: spanning genres to feel cinematic in its rhythmic reeling. In total, it feels like the most “The Weeknd “have ever been himself.
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Vulture
The Weeknd’s new fourth studio album, After Hours, which went ahead with its ill-timed March 20 release in the middle of a pandemic, is appeasing sometimes, but it’s not the mood we’re currently craving.
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Hidden Jams
After Hours is introspective, remorseful, and mature, and it shows The Weeknd evolving both as a musician and as a person. It’s not as instant and catchy as Starboy or Beauty Behind The Madness, but it’s a strong effort with excellent, meaningful songs and a promise of further growth on future albums.
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Blue Devil Hub
Ultimately, the album is geared for listeners with a specific taste, a taste for a feeling of melancholy. Otherwise, one may find the music drab and dispirited, possibly even boring. It is likely that Tesfaye intentionally created songs to cast a dreary spell, so that his own feelings could be matched.
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The Interns
This is without a doubt The Weeknd’s best album since Trilogy.
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NYU News
The Weeknd’s new album is the perfect soundtrack for the apocalypse.
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Cuindependent
“After Hours” accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, becoming the perfect soundtrack for dreams of late-night cruises that validate the feelings of highs and heartbreaks.
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Popdust
The crooners first album in four years sounds great, but his lack of remorse is becoming a concern.
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GQ
It’s one of The Weeknd’s great gifts—making the worst situations not just tolerable, but pleasurable.
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Daily Bruin
While songs on “After Hours” are audibly vibrant, they are also visually stimulating.
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The Arts Desk
After Hours, his fourth album, balances what his fans already like about him with a new twist.
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EUPH
The dark and desperate lyricism meeting the upbeat, synthetic production is something we haven’t truly seen from the singer before. It’s an interesting direction because it’s a collision of two distinctly different eras that The Weeknd flourished in.
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The Painted Lines
The Weeknd is here to help all of us stuck in quarantine and they deliver one of the most hauntingly dark yet beautiful albums in recent memory.
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Uproxx
It’s the kind of album that’s best for nighttime listening when thoughts of the past are inevitable, and is a welcome force to focus the listener back on personal crisis instead of a global one.
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The Breeze
“After Hours” is, without a doubt, one of the best projects The Weeknd has ever released. The way he plays with the sounds of the ’80s on the production of these songs is sure to entertain listeners throughout the 56 minutes this album offers.
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Flipboard
The Weeknd delivered more shiny, danceable pop music with his signature moody edge.
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meaww
Although the new album gears toward a more personal side of The Weeknd, with gentle atmospherics and themes, it is clear the artist has aptly translated the mix of R&B and electronic as the world embraces the digital future.
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TechZimo
“After Hours” is likely one of the most profitable musicians of the previous decade testing the steadiness between innovation and commerciality as a lot as anybody at the moment.
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The Rich Report
This is The Weeknd’s best outing. He is able to stay focused throughout a near hour of work without a single feature, which deserves a lot of praise just for that fact. It’s a descent into utter, glorious madness and the songs work perfectly as a cohesive unit to provide fans with weeks of getting in their feels during this quarantining period.
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EW
After Hours is the Weeknd's most consistent work to date.
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Consequence of Sound
No, it’s not comparable to old Weeknd material, nor should it be. As he evolves, he continues to reinvent himself, and he knows exactly how to leave fans hooked on havoc. And After Hours is proof that he’s not done with us yet; in fact, he’s just getting started.
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Sputnik Music
Fame and recognition haven’t made him complacent, haven’t stopped him from creating the kind of music he wants to create, and his artistic development post-Trilogy might just position After Hours to be his opus.
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411MANIA
After Hours is a divinely dark and torturous pop record, the perfect representation of its conflicted creator.
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Vibe
Pop star Abel Tesfaye commits to ‘80s excess on his best work yet.
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PopMatters
After Hours still employs the Weeknd's more familiar R&B, trap, and pop bangers.
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Cult MTL
After Hours, his most sonically focused body of work since his coveted breakthrough mixtape trilogy.
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NME
his most all-encompassing record to date is also an existential quandary.
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Slant Magazine
disastrously triumphant, which is also a fitting description for the album as a whole.
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All Music
It happens to be one of Tesfaye's best performances, his voice soaring and swooping, signifying numbness and codependency, sorrowful about wasted time while encouraging emotional convalescence.
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JACKS
After Hours is an attempt to combine vulnerability with commercial appeal and the Canadian seems to have hit all the right notes with this piece of work.
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Soundazed
Tesfaye’s given all he can give to After Hours, both emotionally and creatively and it shows. It’s a roller coaster musical journey that listeners will no doubt, feel every ounce of.
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EUPHORIA
After Hours is a synth-led R&B epic. The entire album feels like the perfect soundtrack to a drug-fueled night out with the singer. In the time of our own Coronavirus-imposed self-quarantine, After Hours is the escapist piece we all need; the album we wish we could all party with.
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The Post
The album proves that The Weeknd’s true talent lies in his alluring voice and ability to tell stories. Conclusively, The Weeknd’s hiatus is much appreciated, as listeners get to applaud and treasure his latest work of art while experiencing an unfamiliar, yet contemporary and timeless kind of music.
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HipHop DX
After Hours is the most satisfying blend of “old” and “new” Weeknd that he’s ever put forth on a single project. He said it himself last November: the ensuing months would bring in a “brain-melting, psychotic chapter.” He wasn't lying.
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RHStoday
After Hours deserves the recognition it’s earned not only for the richness of its songs, but also for the old EDM style it embraces while still sticking with the singer’s general R&B and hip hop roots. There’s a good balance between upbeat and depressing tracks and it feels nostalgic to listen to.
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Earbuddy
there’s plenty to like on After Hours. “Blinding Lights” has this totally ’80s future-retro vibe with neon glowing from the speakers.
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The Daily Nexus
With this latest album, new listeners can revel in a melancholic sound that they may not be familiar with yet, and long-time fans can take comfort in the fact that The Weeknd has not really lost sight of who he is after all.
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MSN
“After Hours” is one of the most successful musicians of the past decade testing the balance between innovation and commerciality as much as anyone today.
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Richer Sounds
Tesfaye’s writing has matured even further it seems, and it feels as if this album will be a true experience.
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K-UTE Radio
After Hours is far-and-away The Weeknd’s best album. It is a culmination of all of his styles done in a tasteful way. The aesthetic, lyrics, beats, and even the merch has been incredible. This is the full package and I’m so satisfied with what we’ve got here.
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Bernard Zuel
It’s almost like you could have fun with The Weeknd. Perhaps with the right amount of social distancing – as in, a good arm’s length away from you, with a pole as backup.
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The Wright State Guardian
There’s no song on the record that is terrible, but a weak introduction does stray towards the mediocre. Regardless, sharp synths and well-produced beats, along with the Weeknd’s signature falsetto, make this record an interesting listening experience.
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The Rice Thresher
He bears his pain by grinning through it, and in the end, there is no denying that the Weeknd’s beasts coexist with the beauty he extracts from them. That is the Weeknd’s “After Hours”: a rediscovering of the self by the self.
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Music Matters Media
After Hours is a well-made body of music that turned out to be a beautiful story of heartbreak and personal strife. All in all, the album is one hell of a ride from beginning to end and for the time being, The Weeknd just happens to be our perfect chauffeur.
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DGN Omega
Most importantly, the album encapsulates everything that the term “after hours” means. From the emotional climax of “Scared to Live” to the late-night drive through the city on “Blinding Lights,” the project brings in all the things that can happen when the sky gets dark. As The Weeknd himself puts it: “you can find love, fear, friends, enemies, violence, dancing, sex, demons, angels, loneliness, and togetherness all in the After Hours of the night.”
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The Eisenberg Review
The true success of After Hours is that this realization plays out in the album’s track list, giving us The Weeknd’s best and most consistent offering to date.
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The Times
The generic trap beats, processed vocals, syrupy melodies, sleazy tales of empty sexual encounters amid LA’s plastic surgery set . . . it all feels bleakly anodyne.
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Exepose
[After Hours] is The Weeknd’s most fully realised project since Kiss Land, with a complete aesthetic and narrative, and a consistent high quality of songs to match.
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Campus Times
The Weeknd’s whispered falsetto and the echoes added in production provides a sound as though balanced between sleep and reality, peace and chaos.
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SXU Student Media
If anyone wants to just relax and reflect, or just sit back and enjoy a wonderfully stylized album, I highly recommend listening to After Hours.
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Burbsent
After Hours is a brilliantly crafted album that succeeds on several levels including the resurrection of 1980s groovy electro-pop, the return of peak box music, and a fresh perspective into the King of Modern Pop Music’s most personal thoughts, issues, and struggles.
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No Gossip
After Hours is cementing his transition to a new pop-emo sound and it is going to have it’s moment.
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The Sentry
Abel excels in creating a mix of disco, synth, and 80s sounds on this album to accompany a narrative that focuses on love, pain, and the overall responsibility of dealing with a relationship. It is The Weeknd at his most vulnerable.
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The Arts Desk
he gorgeous minor key melodies of “Save Your Tears”, and the shimmering, twitched 4/4 throb of the title track. These raise After Hours up from a decent more-of-the-same album to something chewier, dancier and more involving.
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California Rocker
And while The Weeknd can show his appreciation for the '80s synth genre, it's clear that he has the uncanny ability to take an old style and with After Hours create a new classic to be cherished for years to come.
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Ambient Light
Yes, there are lesser moments that transcend into not very memorable filler tracks. However, despite this, the big moments soar and this is enough to offset any moments where the album feels like it is sliding. All up, After Hours is a great return from an artist who knows his strengths and plays to them well.
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Hey Nineteen
After Hours is The Weeknd’s most consistent album to date. It packs great pop with expensive sounding of-the-moment production and a nocturnal 80s horror movie atmosphere. In a word: brilliant.
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wrongmog
After Hours feels like the first Weeknd album in a while to offer up a clear, singular vision rather than something frustratingly abstract.
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Clash Magazine
A mature ballad delving into the hardships of the loss of a lover, exploding with beautiful vocals, lyrics and bringing us back to the ‘80s era of synths, which is enjoyable and sets his sound apart from the current direction of music. Production-wise especially, this is The Weeknd’s strongest project yet, and deserves all the recognition.
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Paste
Truly great pop is escapist, a chance to transform the otherwise mundane into something divine for a three-minute time span. Tesfaye doesn’t always get it right, but on After Hours, he offers up at least a few moments of communion during a time of isolation.
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Vulture
Partymobile and After Hours are the perfect soundtracks for your late-night Instagram Live creep sessions.
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KTSW 89.9
While he flashes signs of his inspirations, Abel has found a way to be as unique as any artist of this generation through his music and visuals. After Hours is the prime example of this. This is an album I will be listening to on repeat for months to come. I recommend After Hours for anyone and everyone.
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Medium
After Hours may be his most polished album to date.
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Vidette Online
Tesfaye’s inviting vocals and gloomy synth melodies will make your isolation a little less mundane with his beautiful dreamy album.
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The Student Playlist
Grittier, darker and more emotionally honest than anything he’s ever done, ‘After Hours’ represents a step forward for Abel Tesfaye.
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Surreal Resolution
Overall, this has been one of The Weeknd’s more interesting projects to date, bringing a synthpop/darkwave vibe incorporated with some trap sounds in there, and the result is just impressive to hear.
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The Huntingtonian
Every song on this album feels like unwrapping a Christmas present.
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Thomas Bleach
It’s very cinematic in it’s own way and is an album that is intended to be listened from start to finish, but some of the songs just need to be skipped as they are way too self indulgent.
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Stereoboard
With ‘After Hours’, Abel Tesfaye’s fourth studio album as the Weeknd, the Canadian superstar has delivered a pleasingly cohesive 14-track record that occupies itself with familiar themes of narcotic consumption and sexual endeavour. It’s a fun ride, but one that might leave you with a bit of shame and regret in the morning light.
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Pop Goes The Weasel
Considering these songs have come from The Weeknd – an artist I once loved but just about given up on – makes ‘After Hours’ feel all the more like something to cherish in these uncertain times.
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Affinity
You have the upbeat dance tracks like “Blinding Lights” and ballads like “After Hours.” Additionally, old Weeknd fans can still enjoy some of his old sound on this new album while having some new flavor.
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Pursuit of Dopeness
The Weeknd also gives you a peek into how it’s been a hell of a fun and problematic and painful ride to this point of life, and that realness and emotional transparency is what makes After Hours a fine addition to his career so far.
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KPSU
The art of this album is an evolution in The Weeknd’s previous artistic output. There are resonating elements from previous songs. Some continuing elements clearly present are the self-destructive but full-of-life themes, the subtle voice of showcasing Black art through his art and full dedication of the tracks to enjoyment, dancing and love. Furthermore, the themes have not remained stagnant.
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The Ithacan
“After Hours” flourishes mainly because The Weeknd manages to blend both the beauty and the madness of his psyche. The singer managed to create an album that remained within the boundaries of the R&B-pop genre but failed to truly push the limits of his creativity. This release will leave its impact as a strong pop album, but not as a timeless classic.
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The Rich Report
This is The Weeknd’s best outing. He is able to stay focused throughout a near hour of work without a single feature, which deserves a lot of praise just for that fact. It’s a descent into utter, glorious madness and the songs work perfectly as a cohesive unit to provide fans with weeks of getting in their feels during this quarantining period.
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The Diamondback
While the album brings about beautiful melodies and a much-needed distraction as we jump into his universe of lust and late Las Vegas nights, it falls short of being totally fulfilling or, ultimately, sitting at the top of his discography.
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Lake Central News
The Weeknd continues to take risks with his music and constantly reinvents himself with his different projects. Anyone that has liked his previous music will be able to appreciate how he has grown and evolved as an artist over time. This album sounds like him, and I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next.
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Informassive
The Weeknd’s tune has always been about contrasts, and right here the beauty and the madness are extra smoothly integrated than ever. “After Hours” is certainly probably the most most profitable musicians of the past decade testing the balance between innovation and commerciality as noteworthy as anyone today.
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All Things Six String
The Weeknd’s popularity might have benefited from the nostalgia cycle, but if he continues on the path and the level of After Hours, he will outlive it.
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Stereovision
THE WEEKND’S DARK TAKE ON ALTERNATIVE R&B FUSED WITH 80’S SYNTH POP RESULTS IN ONE OF HIS MOST COMPLETE PROJECTS TO DATE.
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Projector Collective
A creative fusion of both modern and retro styles of pop with R&B and synthwave aesthetics creates a unique atmosphere not just compared to the Weeknd's contemporaries, but also in the greater scope of the music industry. Backing that with his strongest crop of songs in years, After Hours stands as one of the most creative and catchy albums in any genre so far this year.
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Letterboxd
it is maybe the best thing he’s ever done as an artist, and it makes me so happy that I get to have the opportunity to think about Weeknd on this level again. I have wanted to do a full essay on him from start to present and this feels like the perfect time.
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The Prowl
Although this album was incredible audibly, and one of the greatest albums I have heard in so long, I just couldn’t get over how I spaced out and really was bored throughout many songs of the album. I give it a very light
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Eject
this might the strongest project The Weeknd has ever put out.
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Andrew's Music Blog
It's a dark, twisted look at Abel's mind after he's been through hell these last few years. It's consistent, the production is great, and Abel's voice is as amazing as ever.
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Saharamelts
I think this album is a grower, if you are a fan of The Weeknd, you can still expect his classic tone and vocals but if you were going into this album expecting a bit of grit and definition sadly it does not deliver.
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It's All About Toronto Ontario
No one could have predicted the current state of the world when After Hours was first announced, but it’s a well-timed escape.
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The Indiependent
It’s took the best part of a decade but Abel Tesfaye is free of The Weeknd and has found some clarity in this 56 minutes of perfect doom soul and R&B. It’s absolutely the finest album of his career to date.
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The Purbalite
The album overall does a great job giving the singer’s audience a chance to understand his personal life through his music. Because of this, After Hours may be his greatest album to date.
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Pursuit of Dopeness
The Weeknd also gives you a peek into how it’s been a hell of a fun and problematic and painful ride to this point of life, and that realness and emotional transparency is what makes After Hours a fine addition to his career so far.
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VIBE 105
The album as a whole communicates that he is the same anti-hero from Trilogy. It’s a self-reflection of his dark past and a depiction of the man he longs to be.
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The Roar
I have been waiting for this album for what feels like forever and it did not disappoint. Although I do like Trilogy, Kissland, and Starboy better, After Hours beats Beauty Behind the Madness and his EP, Melancholy, for sure.
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Westside Wired
The Weeknd has been a pioneer of the alternative RnB world and has delivered yet another great album for his listeners to enjoy. I was very impressed with After Hours and I think it was a great addition to The Weeknd’s discography.
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Just Some Music
While I also enjoyed Kiss Land, The Beauty Behind the Madness, Starboy and even some songs from Trilogy (his first three mixtapes) – I still think After Hours is his best album yet.
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Beluga's Weekend Countdown
Overall, I think it told a pretty cool story, and the end was better than the beginning.
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Green and White
Overall, this album has a little something for everyone with catchy pop tunes and raw, somber and lyrical songs. It makes for a really great listen while on our break, in case you’ve run out of music and are looking for something new.
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