Beauty Behind the MadnessThe Weeknd · 2015

pitchfork

7.2

“On Beauty Behind the Madness, Abel Tesfaye sheds the fat from his disappointing major label debut, Kiss Land. The album plays like a victory lap, with Tesfaye revisiting past glories and embellishing them, and when he harnesses his gift, the results are impossible to argue with.”

rollingstone

7.0

“Abel Tesfaye — the mysterious pop innovator who records as the Weeknd — set a weird new standard for gloomy self-indulgence in R&B when he came out of Canada a few years back. He was like Drake with the soul of an art-school goth, singing vaguely creepy things like "It's gonna end how you expected/Girl, you're such a masochist" in a satin-smooth voice over weeded-out, black-light-ready tracks buil”

thelineofbestfit

5.0

“The Weeknd's plunge into the pop mainstream is very well-packaged, but ultimately unrewarding”

fantano

5.0

“The Weeknd's new album takes a lot of stylistic risks, experimenting with not just alternative R&B, but soul, rock, and pop. However, few of these forays into other genres pay off, and they leave the album feeling pretty inconsistent and directionless.”

Miguel

9.5

“Insane album that really propelled The Weeknd into stardom. He strays well away from his usual dark RnB style and goes for a more pop feel on the album which for the most part pays off. Production on the album is incredible and Abel really uses and tests his voice on this album compared to his others. Top songs for me are ‘The Hills’ ‘Acquainted’ ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ ‘Tell Your Friends’ ‘Often’ ‘In The Night’ ‘Earned It’”