The Weeknd - Trilogy
Critic Score
Based on 20 reviews
User Score
Based on 845 ratings
Liked by 164 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
FACT Magazine

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. 

100
Pretty Much Amazing

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.

95
The Line of Best Fit

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.

90
Spill Magazine

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.

90
The 405

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.

85
Pitchfork

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.

85
Beats Per Minute

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

83
Entertainment Weekly
Each trippy disc holds up remarkably well, though we wouldn’t recommend listening to all three while operating machinery.
80
The Irish Times

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.

80
The Observer
The production sounded great to start with, and the new material is unexceptional, but if you didn't pick up the mixtapes when they were going free, and can handle 160 minutes of beautifully crafted nihilism, this is an essential buy.
80
NOW Magazine

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.

80
The Guardian

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.

80
Time Out London
While many will have heard ‘Trilogy’ already, its physical release is welcome, adding some honesty and maturity to the R&B charts that Labrinth and Chris Brown have yet to bring.
80
HipHopDX
The mixtapes remain practically untouched, giving any new The Weeknd fans a genuine look into what allowed an unknown artist to transform himself into someone who breathed new life into R&B.
80
PopMatters

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.

80
Drowned in Sound

As a comprehensive document of a specific moment in time, Trilogy is untouchable. 

70
Paste

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

70
Spectrum Culture
Throughout 2011, they showed impressive ambition with their music, subtly hinting at themes and lyrics that coalesced into what can be seen as a three album long narrative of torment, sadness and really good drugs.
60
AllMusic

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.

50
Rolling Stone

The Trilogy collects three of the Toronto singer’s 2011 mixtapes, but some editing might have better introduced him to the world outside Tumblr.

dovid_h
89

i saw this guy in public and he looked at me once

Z.Younk
96

This is one of those records everyone should own (talking ab vinyl for the hipsters)

andiov1
73

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

souleaterwill
80

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

OnGawd
95

These three mixtapes together make up for Abel's best album to date.

GraemeL
80

Great :)

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Track List

House of Balloons

  1. High for This
  2. What You Need
  3. House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls
  4. The Morning
  5. Wicked Games
  6. The Party & the After Party
  7. Coming Down
  8. Loft Music
  9. The Knowing
  10. Twenty Eight

Thursday

  1. Lonely Star
  2. Life of the Party
  3. Thursday
  4. The Zone (feat. Drake)
  5. The Birds, Pt. 1
  6. The Birds, Pt. 2
  7. Gone
  8. Rolling Stone
  9. Heaven or Las Vegas
  10. Valerie

Echoes of Silence

  1. D.D.
  2. Montreal
  3. Outside
  4. XO / The Host
  5. Initiation
  6. Same Old Song (feat. Juicy J)
  7. The Fall
  8. Next
  9. Echoes of Silence
  10. Till Dawn (Here Comes the Sun)

Year End Lists

#18/Clash
#31/Obscure Sound
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Added on: October 2, 2012