The Weeknd's 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' album review

The Weeknd is one of those artists that is held to a higher standard whenever he drops a new project. In his almost 15-year long career, he has arguably never put out a bad song, let alone a bad album. Every single one of his projects have been fantastic, and I can confidently tell you that Hurry Up Tomorrow is no different.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is The Weeknd’s first release in just over three years. His last album, Dawn FM, was released in Jan. 2022. Hurry Up Tomorrow also represents the final installment of The Weeknd’s latest trilogy, which also consists of After Hours and Dawn FM. It will also be the last album he will release under The Weeknd name.

With a length of over an hour and 24 minutes and a 22-song tracklist, Hurry Up Tomorrow is by far The Weeknd’s longest album. The album’s length might even be viewed as a concern for some since albums with that much runtime rarely maintain the same level of quality throughout. However, Hurry Up Tomorrow manages to be one of the exceptions.

The album pulls you in from the very beginning with a couple of amazing songs in “Wake Me Up” and “Cry For Me” kicking off the tracklist. Both of these tracks match the energy of some of The Weeknd’s biggest anthems like “Blinding Lights” or “Can’t Feel My Face.”

From there, we move into “São Paulo,” a high-energy banger with a Brazilian funk-inspired production. The song, which features Brazilian singer Anitta, was previously released as one of the album’s lead singles. The Weeknd is known for blending together many different genres within his music and “São Paulo” is another perfect example of that. Despite its’ soundscape being quite different from the rest of the songs on the album, it does not feel out of place in any way.

The album continues with amazing song after amazing song, never falling off in quality along the way. Among the numerous noteworthy highlights are the songs “Baptized In Fear” and “Open Hearts,” which aside from being two fantastic songs in their own right, feature one of the best song-to-song transitions in The Weeknd’s entire catalogue.

The song “Reflections Laughing” marks the first time that Travis Scott has been featured on one of The Weeknd’s albums. Scott and The Weeknd are longtime collaborators with The Weeknd being featured on each of Travis Scott’s four studio albums.

The features on the album, although minimal, do a brilliant job at adding to each of their respective songs. In addition to Travis Scott and Anitta, Future makes an appearance on two separate tracks. On “Enjoy The Show,” Future shows off his versatility with two strong rap verses to go along with one of the better melodic performances of his career. He also appears on the song “Given Up On Me” in a much smaller capacity.

Perhaps the most notable feature on the album is Playboi Carti on “Timeless.” Carti’s verse on the song is one of his best rapping performances in recent years. Overall, “Timeless” ranks highly among his best ever features.

The last feature on the album is Lana Del Rey on the song “The Abyss.” Del Rey delivers a beautiful vocal performance on the outro of the song, easily making for the best feature on the album — even though the rest of the features are very strong.

As great as the featured artists are, The Weeknd continually steals the show with his dynamic, layered performances throughout the entire tracklist. It can even be argued that The Weeknd’s overall performance on Hurry Up Tomorrow is stronger than on any of his previous albums or mixtapes.

The album’s production is equally as compelling and enthralling, immersing the listener into its’ own unique world. Even at the project’s extended length, the production never fails to feel nuanced and distinct, while still blending together into a singular experience.

As a whole, Hurry Up Tomorrow is a fitting climax to The Weeknd’s iconic catalogue. It feels as if his entire discography has been building up to this very moment — a grandiose sendoff to this part of his career. Hurry Up Tomorrow can be debated as The Weeknd’s magnum opus, alongside House Of Balloons and After Hours.

Overall Rating: 10/10