The Weeknd

                                                  Echoes of Silence 

                                                        7.5/10

Echoes of Silence is the third and final mixtape in the Weeknd’s (aka Abel Tesfaye) mixtape trilogy. His brilliant debut mixtape, House of Balloons ended up on my top 10 albums of 2011 while Thursday didn’t make my top 50 albums of the year it was still full of great tunes like “Life of the Party,” and the guitar-driven “The Birds Part 1.” Although Echoes of Silence is closer to Balloons than Thursday as far as sound goes, there are a few elements holding me back from completely enjoying it on the same level as I did with Balloons.

Silence is sonically closer to HoB than Thursdays but perhaps Tesfaye’s novelty has warn off a bit. Releasing three full-lengths in a year is ambitious and too much of a good thing is never good. Therefore, I found myself not enjoying his third release as much as the first two. Things felt more gimmicky here as well. For example, I was into the opener “D.D” — a cover of Michael Jackson’s jam “Dirty Diana” — but I don’t know, it was a great cover but there is this underlying “trying too hard” “cool factor” behind the track that grated me. Same goes for the following song, “Montreal” where (although really, really sexy) Tesfaye starts rapping in French, another “trying too hard” moment. 

“XO / The Host” however, is a standout with its smooth beats, violin samples, and Tesfaye rapping about sneaking out of your parents to go to some exclusive party to get fucked up. The next track, “Initiation,” which was released a month or so ago, is the best thing here. Tesfaye’s voice is warped to sound devilish  the beats are hard and everything culminates into this creepy, haunting, stellar track. “Same Old Song” is a depressing cut but Tesfaye shows off the power of his sultry voice as he belts out “You’re the same old song,” in the track’s climaxing moments.

But Silence also shows off the rapper’s weak spots as, probably more so than the other mixes, or at least on Thursday. The song writing here is pretty terrible. I mean even the album’s title is some junior high school level shit. On “Same Old Song” I could easily predict upcoming lyrics like, “I’ve been alone almost my whole life.” And even though I loved “XO / The Host” I honestly thought for a moment the Weeknd was only 15 years-old. But he is only 21 so I guess I shouldn’t be too harsh.

Then we have the final three tracks, “The Fall,” “Next” and “Echoes of Silence,” which are all too similar to each other and unfortunately forgettable and uninspired. They are filler where Tesfaye totally misses his own aesthetic and he sounds like a mimic of himself. In addition, the production to the mixtape’s flow doesn’t work for me. There are no breaks between any of the tracks making everything sound like one giant song. And sure, that approach has definitely worked in the past on other records but not here as it gets really annoying really fast.

Echoes of Silence may not be the Weeknd’s strongest collection of songs but there are enjoyable moments. Perhaps Tesfaye is running out of steam with his ambitious project. Maybe after some regrouping, touring and thinking of a new direction and letting himself become inspired he will release something as innovative and spectacular as House of Balloons.

Listen to Echoes of Silence  on SoundCloud below:

The Weeknd - Echoes Of Silence by The_Weeknd