There's this little theory I have. In the world of music, there are three types of R&B singers. First there's your more mainstream and/or big hit singers (Beyonce', Rihanna etc.). Then you have the soul singers. Conscious R&B singers if you will (John Legend, Chrisette Michele, Jill Scott etc.). But then you have the crooners. A crooner can be defined many different ways but to me, these are singers (majority are males) who only have the voices and overall sound fitting for romance songs. Legends like Teddy Pendergrass and Al Green are perfect examples of this. Now calm down, I'm not trying to compare The Weeknd to those guys but he definitely fits the title of crooner. Once people heard his voice on Drake's "Crew Love", he was instantly on every ones radar. That same year, he released three critically acclaimed mixtapes in House Of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes Of Silence. Last year he released a compilation album titled Trilogy which featured tracks from all three of those previous projects. All of this further pushed his name out their pulling more listeners in to his music. Well now no more wait. Here is his official debut album Kiss Land. Now all of those previous projects I never got a chance to hear. Not even Trilogy which had his hit "Wicked Games" from earlier this year. So this is my first time listening to a full project from him. After multiple listens, honestly, I don't understand all the hype surrounding him. I thought the album was just below average for me. Now don't get me wrong he's has some talented. At least enough to get him over in mainstream land. But I just don't think this was a strong debut. First off, I'm not really feeling his voice. He just sounds too whiny and hesitant at the same time. To the point where he sounds like he's whimpering. It was quite hard to make out things he was saying because of this. Also, lyrically, on this album at least, he's not all that great. Some of his wording and placement of those words were bad. You add that plus his awkward vocals and it equals an average to bad sound. While women and romance was talked about a lot on here, the album sounded very sad and gloomy. He sounded so depressed, somber and even isolated to the point where he sounded like an emo. Even when talking about women and romancing. Now production wise it wasn't bad. It did fit the tone and made the album sound more theatrical. So that was a plus. Now some stand out tracks. I really don't have any favorite tracks or ones that I liked more than others, but I can point out a song that truly stood out from the others and that was "Wanderlust". This song was far from depressing sounding. It had this really electric funk sounding production. The overall sound of it sounds a bit like 80's Michael Jackson. Weeknd even sounds like MJ on here. The remix, which is featured on the deluxe edition, features Pharrell and sounds more uptempo and party friendly. "Live For" is the first single. Which for me is weird considering that there weren't too many songs on this album I would consider single worthy. This song had the lone guest feature of the album which was Drake. Honestly I've never been more excited to hear a Drake verse. Just to take away from the gloomy emo mood the album was presenting. The song was okay though despite the repetitive hook. "Adaptation" shows his emotions all over the place. He talks about a serious addiction. To a chick that is. On the hook he says "I'm adapted to the model whose adapted to a bottle/they take it down like water just to burn away their sorrow". Apparently it's a chick going through the same depressing emotions as him. An okay song after a few listens. "Belong To The World" had this strange erratic beat that kind of sounds like something from Kanye's Yeezus album. Again, another song that's just okay to me. Now on to my dislikes. First off, majority of these songs were way too long. Which is a huge issue considering how his voice is. "Adaptation" was four minutes and forty four seconds but seemed longer than that because of The Weeknd's dreary and dragged out vocals. The rest of the tracks were five to seven minutes long. Tracks in the middle like "Kiss Land", "Pretty" and "Tears In The Rain" were all incredibly long and it made it hard for me to listen to. Not only because of that but these were songs where Weeknd, because of that voice, makes it hard for me to understand and take away the things he talks about. It was really hard to stay awake during those three tracks too. The intro "Professional" was a tough pill to swallow as well. Another long six minute track, the hook on this was really bad. The echoing sound effect on the words were terrible and just really made things go left. This had potential to be a better song had it not been for that poor hook. The outro track "Odd Look" had a dope vintage 70's sounding production but his vocals were so bad on it that's it hard to enjoy it. Also once again it was hard to make out the things being said. Good beat, but an overall bad song. Well in closing, this album kind of disappointed me. With all his hype I would have expected a stellar project. I give it a final grade of a C-. I do believe The Weeknd has the talent. I also believe he'll be around for a while. But vocally and lyrically he needs to develop. R&B needs more crooners like this. This style of R&B has been missing a while and maybe, after some development of course, The Weeknd can lead the charge in bringing it back. I believe he can. End.
Final Grade: C-
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