In Hurry Up Tomorrow, The Weeknd is saying goodbye. For years, the artist otherwise known as Abel Tesfaye has been grappling with the limits of his R&B persona who, after breaking out with sultry, surreal mixtapes in 2009, has become this generation’s closest approximation to Michael Jackson or Prince. He’s been producing nonstop music under his alias ever since, leaning on an obsessive work ethic, non-stop momentum, and a precarious cocktail of substances and alcohol to keep the wheel turning. But in 2022, halfway through his first stadium tour, Tesfaye lost his voice, triggering the kind of mental break that forces one to reevaluate their priorities.
Tesfaye’s latest artistic effort dramatizes this harrowing memory, and the existential crisis that followed, to the key of a psychological thriller. Co-written with Waves director Trey Edward Shults, Hurry Up Tomorrow is a companion piece to his album of the same name, released earlier this year — an album he claims will be the last body of work he produces under “the Weeknd.” The loss of his voice felt like a sign to give up his persona. “My body was telling me to sit down,” Tesfaye told The New York Times. “It was telling me, ‘you have nothing else to say.’”
