The Weeknd’s Latest Album, Dawn FM, Explores His Struggles And Past

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, also known as the R&B Pop artist The Weeknd, has come out with his fifth studio album Dawn FM. 

The album was released on Jan. 7 and features sixteen songs.

Throughout it, The Weeknd captures an entirely new dimension of 80s and vintage sounds, including synths and even a sample from Michael Jackson’s Thriller in one of the sixteen tracks. 

There is no doubt he has evolved during the last twelve years. The Weeknd explained that this album is a creation of what he was feeling throughout the two years since the pandemic began. 

The album’s theme is a radio station known as 103.5 Dawn FM.

Listeners get to listen to a radio broadcaster as they discuss death and moving on from the past and their regrets.

It features additional narration from actor Jim Carrey in the intro and title track, as well as on the outro track, Phantom Regret By Jim, a poem about self reflection.

The first five songs on the album reflect the denial of accepting death as an end-all.

In the track Tale By Quincy, producer Quincy Jones refers to his childhood seeing his mom deal with her mental illness and then having to deal with a bad stepmom. 

He then connects this childhood trauma and how it has affected his ability to have relationships. This was a relevant interlude to add to the album because The Weeknd wanted to emphasize how he relates to Quincy Jones in this aspect.

As the progression of the album reaches Out of Time until the song Starry Eyes, we see how Tesfaye has accepted that he has sinned and there is no more pushing to make things better.

Out Of Time showcases a distressed Tesfaye as he recognizes all of his mistakes in a relationship and is asking for a second chance. 

In Best Friends, Tesfaye tells his friend, who he is having a sexual relationship with, not to get too carried away and fall in love with him. He goes on to sing that he’s been in a toxic relationship previously and that he still hasn’t recovered enough to manage love. He advises her to concentrate on the friendship in order to avoid being wounded.

The songs throughout the album are a reflection of The Picture of Dorian Gray, a philosophical novel about a man who gets his picture painted, and which each sin he commits, his pictures portray him to be older. It was in an attempt to hide his sins, but he later begins to accept them and his picture goes back to normal.

Tesfaye wanted to reference this novel because he relates a lot to the character Dorian, except where he actually does feel guilty about all the sins he has committed and all the bad things he did.

In his songs, he says that he will accept any punishment that was a result of all the wrong things he did, which proves to himself that he can truly be at peace once he has become even.

Once the album reaches Every Angel Is Terrifying, you can see how Tesfaye explains how he let go of his past and now sees life in a better way. 

“You gotta be heaven to see heaven, may peace be with you,” is a line from the closing track that Carrey performed, explaining that you must create inner peace to be truly peaceful.

The reason for Dawn FM’s cover portrayal of an older Tesfaye is because it shows how his past has caught up with him. 

Throughout the album, creepy and toxic relationships also convert the gray-haired and cold Tesfaye we see on the album cover.

Rumor has it that this was his close out album. It is believed that he will use this break to really move on from the name The Weeknd to just Abel. 

If this is true, Dawn FM was the perfect way to end The Weeknd’s journey and perhaps time away from the industry may finally give him a sense of peace and the ability to focus on himself.

The album was beautifully produced, sung and written. It is no surprise that he came out as confident and bold with this album as he did.

The Weeknd is one of the most iconic artists of our generation. Whatever is next for him, there is no doubt that he will continue to have fans experiencing out of world feelings.