The Weeknd has always been a little dark. He’s always been bold with his sexual exploits. But on one of his two new songs, “John Carpenter,” he opens up about a different corner of his life.
“I got a brand-new place, I think I seen it twice all year/ I can’t remember how it looks inside, so you can picture how my life’s been/ I went from staring at the same four walls for 21 years/ To seeing the whole world in just 12 months / been gone for so long I might’ve just found God,” he lament-excites. “I don’t got no friends… this ain’t nothing to relate to.”
He still talks, literally, about how many women he can “f*ck” on the road, what ladies do with their tongues when they’re around him, but it’s a similar mold that got people in a tizzy over Drake: emotional coldness and boldness. The intense beat is met with noisy ghosts that trail off into Weeknd’s monotone condition. It’s weird, but at least it’s new.
Sharing the same YouTube airspace (at the beginning) is “Kiss Land,” which is apparently the title track to the R&B singer and producer’s next album, due out later this year. It’s much more on par with his usual sounds and tirade, like a lot of neon and a lot of blackness as he traipses through lines like “Go ‘head girl strip it down, shut your mouth / I just wanna hear your body talk.” No wonder there’s a scream from the top. It’s a track with lots of grring distortion and exhalation from his quivering, high voice. And it’s too bad it didn’t show up in time for the film “Spring Breakers,” because they’re serious soul mates.