Dawn FM
Details
LP / Format
Oneohtrix Point Never, Max Martin, Oscar Holter, Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris, +12 more... / Producer
theweeknd.com / Website
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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
With his fantastic fifth studio album, The Weeknd definitely sets the tone and bar high as we usher in a new year with plenty of new music on the horizon.
100
Abel Tesfaye confirms his status as an all-time great with an album of icy 80s-inflected splendour.
90
With Dawn FM The Weeknd has demonstrated a vision that the vast majority of his peers would be incapable of, and has executed it with finesse and a slippery, enigmatic charm.
90
While The Weeknd’s early work remains influential, fantastic songwriting and production assistance from Max Martin and Daniel Lopatin (among others) has helped transform Dawn FM into pop gold.
90
With Dawn FM, Abel Tesfaye has truly cemented himself as one of the modern greats, and it's been a treat to be able to experience it in real-time.
88
Billed as the successor to 2019’s acclaimed After Hours, Abel Tesfaye’s fifth studio LP transcends dynamic pop grandeur and flaunts accountability in the face of death.
83
Dawn FM might be just shy of summoning the truly divine, but its best moments provide enough blinding light to counter the increasingly enveloping gloom of 2022.
80
Conceptualized around listening to a retro-pop radio station in purgatory, Abel Tesfaye’s fifth album is the most thoughtful, melodic, and revealing project of his career.
80
Abel Tesfaye’s skill in fusing ‘70s and ‘80s funk-adjacent sounds into 21st century pop canon is nothing new, but here ... it’s so spot-on as to imagine Max Headroom could interrupt at any given moment.
3mo
80
Musically, Dawn FM mirrors Tesfaye’s disquiet, its buffed electronic sheen ruptured by moments of discord ... It’s a state that Tesfaye seems to relish, with often stunning results.
80
In the main, this is a space for Tesfaye to fully indulge his frantic romantic side as his co-conspirators whip up fluorescent throwback Euro-pop with muscle and nuance.
80
Admittedly, The Weeknd is light years away from the sounds of Trilogy and a lot closer to the sounds of After Hours and Starboy, but one thing is for sure: this album is much closer to excellence than his last offerings.
80
While a bit front-loaded, Dawn FM boasts a lot of fantastic songwriting and worldbuilding from Abel and company.
80
Dawn FM is still on the ’80s kick that was so playfully explored on After Hours, but the album uses this foundation to dive into strange asides and more specific references.
80
Dawn FM is no Thriller by any means (sorry Timbaland) but it’s a solid chapter in the story of an artist who continues to unabashedly defy expectations. And ultimately, we’re lucky to be along for the ride.
80
Less brooding and decadent than usual, his latest is a refreshingly light and accessible listen.
80
Escapism of the best kind from a pop mastermind.
80
Dawn FM is a woozy, psychedelic deep dive inside the artist’s famously twisted psyche.
80
Dawn FM is his most ambitious album to date, and one that shows welcome signs of emotional and psychological growth.
80
Abel Tesfaye marks a period of reflection with perhaps his most mature, emotionally robust collection yet. Oh, and Jim Carrey narrates it, of course.
80
On Dawn FM, The Weeknd cements himself as a master of the cinematic, and one of the most innovative artists in pop right now. It’s stratospheric in size and draped in shadows and mystique—The Weeknd masterfully crafts an album that is simultaneously euphoric and unnerving.
80
Despite some pacing issues, ‘Dawn FM’ is a worthy follow-up to ‘After Hours’. Whilst it lacks the character and vivacity of its predecessor, ‘Dawn FM’ develops the latest reinvention of the Weeknd with its dramatic instrumentation and refreshed view of the world.
80
What better balm for the start of another troubled year than our biggest star making music as good as this?
80
Dawn FM has enough twists and turns to keep the listener on their toes.
80
The singer doubles down on pop in his latest album with resounding success.
76
Dawn FM is an exhibition of pure ambition from an artist that’s reached the mountaintop
70
By this point, we know The Weeknd’s not an “album artist”, and Dawn FM has its highlights. As ever, just add the best bits to your streaming “Weeknd playlist” and there’s an apocalyptic soundtrack you can’t deny.
60
It may lean heavy on nostalgia while setting up a concept that is only loosely followed through a few interludes rather than truly being developed; however, there is no doubt that The Weeknd is performing on all cylinders with a creative ambition that seeks to elevate pop music as a whole.
Dawn Fm is a satisfying sequel to Afters Hours with its own particularity, without equaling it. For the occasion The Weeknd supports his achievements by transcribing it in a concept as ambitious as interesting, which confirms his status of master of the Synthpop mainstream.
Here we are, the famous introduction to announce the new year that we never get tired of. So I'll go straight to the point: happy new year to all, full of achievements and happiness. Finally, what could be better than to ... read more
I WILL COLLECT MY THOUGHTS SOON BUT I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT IM SO GLAD TO BE A FAN OF THE WEEKND
Edit: alright, here’s the review:
While I may prefer After Hours just a little bit more, Dawn FM is the pop album I have always wanted from The Weeknd.
The Weeknd was the first artist whose music I fell in love with, and he is probably the most important artist to me and his music has been the soundtrack to so much of my life. I was 11 or 12 when I first heard The Weeknd, and at the time ... read more
The Weeknd delivers a really entertaining follow up to his previous album After Hours. I wasn't expecting much from this project and I honestly thought that it was gonna all be After Hours B-Sides but boy was I wrong. Abel did it again.
The production on here is TOP NOTCH and is truly some of the best I've heard on his work and really reminded me of like some of Michael Jackson's music. The vocals Abel does on here are incredible as well with some of his most unique singing on here with tons ... read more
actually loved quite a bit. maybe gets a bit repetitive at points but i love the narratives in abel's past couple projects and i think he's doing something really special in the pop scene.
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Track List
| 1 | Dawn FM 1:36 | 79 |
| 2 | Gasoline 3:32 | 84 |
| 3 | How Do I Make You Love Me? 3:34 | 84 |
| 4 | Take My Breath 5:39 | 89 |
| 5 | Sacrifice 3:08 | 88 |
| 6 | A Tale By Quincy 1:36 | 74 |
| 7 | Out of Time 3:34 | 87 |
| 8 | Here We Go… Again 3:29 feat. Tyler, The Creator | 79 |
| 9 | Best Friends 2:43 | 76 |
| 10 | Is There Someone Else? 3:19 | 82 |
| 11 | Starry Eyes 2:28 | 75 |
| 12 | Every Angel is Terrifying 2:47 | 73 |
| 13 | Don’t Break My Heart 3:25 | 77 |
| 14 | I Heard You’re Married 4:23 feat. Lil Wayne | 72 |
| 15 | Less Than Zero 3:31 | 90 |
| 16 | Phantom Regret by Jim 2:59 | 81 |
Total Length: 51 minutes
Year End Lists
| #3 | / | The Guardian |
| #5 | / | Gaffa (Sweden) |
| #6 | / | Complex |
| #7 | / | Yahoo Entertainment |
| #8 | / | Billboard |
| #8 | / | RIFF |
| #9 | / | The FADER |
| #10 | / | Stereogum |
| #10 | / | The Atlantic |
| #11 | / | BrooklynVegan |
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Added on: July 13, 2021