An r’n'b album with few equals in terms of narrational ambition, Trilogy doesn’t just expose or subvert the womanising male archetype of modern r’n'b, it destroys it, by rendering it quaintly one-dimensional.
However wasted an opportunity it is as an introduction to The Weeknd, Trilogy is still a staggering, near-perfect portrait of hedonism’s inherent depravity and bareness.
Tesfaye’s songwriting is pure gold: simple at the core but teased out by The Weekend’s production team into something entirely new and exciting, sometimes sensual but always interesting.
Slinky sounds, sultry elegance, slow pianos, echoes, raw and aggressive, all of this is found on Trilogy. This is a versatile album and hard to get bored of.
It's an exhausting journey, dark and disturbing with little respite, but in the end when those last chords fade away and you're left with the echoes ringing in your ears, it's a journey that's worth taking.
This is some of the the best music of the young decade; judging by its already pervasive influence, it's safe to say Trilogy (or at least House of Balloons) will be one of those records that will be viewed as a turning point when we look at the 2010s as a whole.
Trilogy takes one of the more singular bodies of work of the new decade and gives it a very modern bout of premature re-evaluation, image curating and real-time mythologizing
Trilogy reminds you how striking and singular Tesfaye’s work is, as he infuses songs with melancholic, wistful, muted moods and captures the listlessness and ennui that often lurks behind the hedonism.
This release is more about posterity than necessity ... But it’s also a reminder that if you remove the distractions – the red carpet, the photo shoots, the endorsements – an artist can succeed on the strength of music alone.
Trilogy does remove some of the Weeknd's mystique – lyrical formulae become apparent, and examples of engaging melody recede as the collection advances. Whatever its limits, however, Trilogy remains a striking piece of work.
If we are to consider this compilation as a single document, then it’s a document of this limited, albeit mesmerizing, facet of the Weeknd’s persona.
As a comprehensive document of a specific moment in time, Trilogy is untouchable.
If only it had that kind of focus. The disparate releases are as oil and water as ever, with a new song on each disc that doesn’t fit at all
Now that he's with a label, he'll hopefully get some kind of filter that enables him to fulfill the promise heard in these 160 minutes of one-dimensional, occasionally exhilarating overindulgence ... His potential is as obvious as his lyrics are toxic.
The Trilogy collects three of the Toronto singer’s 2011 mixtapes, but some editing might have better introduced him to the world outside Tumblr.
While it may be a bit of a slog to get through as a whole as each mixtape gets increasingly more hedonistic and self-indulgent, in this compilation's peaks Abel was able to strike gold on the first try with his sound that so many alt R&B artists for the later part of the 2010s would try to imitate but never successfully duplicate.
House of Balloons: 81.8/100
Favorites: The Morning, What You Need, House Of Balloons / Glass Table Girls
Least Favorites: Twenty Eight, The Party & The After ... read more
sex music
(House of Balloons - 80/100
Thursday - 75/100
Echoes of Silence - 85/100)
Overall, an 80/100
Fav Track: House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls + Life of the Party + XO / The Host
Least Fav Track: Gone
House of Balloons
Thursday
Echoes of Silence
#18 | / | Clash |
#31 | / | Obscure Sound |