Well everyone's reaching desperately for some arch narrative in lieu of this year in politics and like... You're not going to find it in something like Weeknd who's always kind of railed on the same thing. Not in a direct reference to the times. Its been "I'm sad as fuck, lemme take these pills" for the whole of the Obama Administration with him pretty much, I don't think any sense of the world around him is resulting in any less or more depression. Cue some cut-out thinkpiece on millenial self-involvement but I digress...
The funniest thing is that Reynolds instantly takes up the banter about this being a Bowie tribute and that's why he kind of forces the weirmar/Thin White Duke analogies which is a bit predictable. The first thing I thought of when he said his album was called Starboy was this:
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It reminded me how a lot of Toronto's doing the faux-dancehall music (The Drake camp obviously who Abel has his on-again/off-again relationship with in particular), and Weeknd did cod-reggae on "Heaven or Los Vegas" and he did inexplicable patois on "King of the Fall". Is there that vibe anywhere on the LP or no, because it seems perfectly logical for him to make that jump.