Starboy has to be one of the most confident albums Abel has released. Starboy showed change in the most interesting ways. It was the first album I listened to by The Weeknd, specifically False Alarm. I saw the music video from my sister, shoutout to her, and I remember being amazed by how amazing it was, it made me look back into his other albums and I fell more in love with his music. The question is, what makes this album so great, and who is Starboy?
In the song “Starboy” and more specifically the music video, a masked man is seen killing Abel, but we soon later find out that the person who killed Abel was himself. This new Abel Tesfaye smashes all of his records, and awards, and burns all evidence of his former self. The Weeknd shows more of his personal life, he shows us that none of his achievements defines him, whoever we thought The Weeknd was, is dead.
Now the question is, who is Starboy? One point out is that “Beauty Behind The Madness” made The Weeknd pop off. Abel saw it both as a blessing and a curse though. While it helped gain popularity, it also took away the mystery behind him. People knew what to expect from The Weeknd after BBTM. Abel had to find a way to reinvent himself. When asked about why he cut his hair, he said this.
“It was a long time coming. It didn’t feel right anymore because it ended up becoming a trademark. I told everybody I was getting rid of it and everybody-literally, unanimously- they were like, ‘no, don’t do it! That’s your whole thing, that you.’ and the way they said it I was like ‘Oh, I’m definitely cutting it now.”
While The Weeknd couldn’t be mysterious, he could still be unpredictable. Starboy is the furthest The Weeknd has ever departed from the original trilogy sound he used to have. There’s no particular story in this album, it’s about The Weeknd expressing himself. In the song “Reminder,” he’s flexing, but the flexes are all completely authentic to him, and not many people can say they went platinum on a mixtape and won a kid’s award for singing about drugs(ICFMF). Another example is “Sidewalks,’ this song feels like The Weeknd saying “Let me show you where I was before I was famous.”
Now there was an opinion floating around that ever since The Weeknd started working with pop producers his songs have become terrible, but I disagree. The Weeknd’s new sound is just as authentic and the lyrics are just as amazing. Every Weeknd album contains a tragedy, besides Starboy, whether that be a lover, a part of himself, or both. It’s safe to say that Starboy isn’t a tragedy, most of the songs at the end are straight-up love songs. Now people can say that this album is just a bunch of songs, but the connection between “Starboy” and “I Feel It Coming” is far apart. The man we met at the beginning of the album isn’t the same one at the end.
In “Party Monster,” The Weeknd just wants to be with someone he can trust without being paranoid that he’s being used. I mean the song ends with imagery of him looking for his stuff. There’s still this void in his life, but he’s trying to cover it up, and at one point in the song he’s even asking a girl to tell him lies and tell him that she loves him.
“Secrets,” is the first time in Starboy where he tells us his feelings for a romantic interest. After all, he calls her “my love,” but he thinks that she’s cheating on him. This fear of falling in love and getting hurt is keeping him up at night. We find out that she wasn’t cheating in “Nothing Without You,” and it was all his head. That’s the thing about paranoia, you believe your fear is a threat where there is little to no evidence. He believed that no lover would be able to look past his money and clout. Starboy is him overcoming that fear and learning to love again. This song is different from The Weeknd’s usual dark tracks and this song works because of the buildup. He has finally accepted his feelings.
The ending is long, but I feel like it needs to be and that’s what makes it unique in a way. “Die For You,” is an example, it gives the same meaning as “Nothing Without You,” the song is also a beautiful and unusual love song. He talks about still loving a girl even after breaking up with them.
The final track on the album, “I Feel It Coming,” can be seen in many different ways, it all depends on how you want to perceive it. The Weeknd has grown from being all alone to finding love and for once in a long time, he is happy, The Weeknd is finally reborn. Sadly, it doesn’t last for very long, because he soon goes back to his old ways in “My Dear Melancholy.”