Hurry Up Tomorrow Album Review

 

The Weeknd's Grand Finale 

By Dylan Barbee

Courtesy of Apple Music

Release Date: January 31st, 2025 

The Weeknd’s career has been a rollercoaster. Beginning as a mysterious new voice in the industry after his debut mixtape House Of Balloons in 2011, he became one the most commercially successful pop stars of all time with albums like his 2015 Beauty Behind The Madness and his 2020 album After Hours. The Weeknd’s discography has been well-decorated over the last 14 years. Now, with his latest album release Hurry Up Tomorrow the 34-year-old artist from Toronto says goodbye to his persona with a cinematic grand finale. 

Hurry Up Tomorrow is a long listen, containing 22 songs that prolong to a runtime of an hour and 25 minutes. On the album, The Weeknd yearns for self-redemption and personal transformation as he is emotionally seeking forgiveness from his fans and even God. He confesses the sins of the persona he donned throughout his career and acknowledges his self-destructive behavior while on his way to the top of the music industry. 

I believe that this is some of The Weeknd’s most emotionally vulnerable work since Trilogy. The raw lyricism that displayed his toxicity as a young artist has now turned into a message of personal growth after being reckoned by his regrets. This time, The Weeknd is also sticking to the shimmering 80s production style he has used on past albums like Starboy, After Hours and Dawn FM instead of his R&B roots on Trilogy. 

Hurry Up Tomorrow starts off on a high note as the intro track “Wake Me Up” serves as a cinematic opening to The Weeknd’s journey to self-purification. While paying homage to Michael Jackson through a “Thriller” interpolation, The Weeknd contemplates the length of his career and its near end. “All I have is my legacy, I've been losing my memory, no afterlife, no other side, I’m all alone when it fades to black,” The Weeknd tragically sings for the opening lines of the song.

Through great transitions that flow within one another from song to song, The Weeknd continues telling the story of his regrets and being chased by death over what feels and sounds like the final scene of a 14-year-long movie. The production on Hurry Up Tomorrow is top-notch, especially on the club songs like “Cry For Me” and “São Paulo” featuring Brazilian artist Anitta. 

However, there are times during the album when I feel like the 80s pop production that he has been falling back on for the past five years feels even more dragged out than it does on previous albums like After Hours and Dawn FM. Songs like “Open Hearts” and “Opening Night” are examples of this sound despite being solid listens.

The Weeknd flourishes most during the middle portion of the album where he takes on a more introspective tone and we get some of The Weeknd’s darkest lyrics yet. For instance, on songs like “Reflections Laughing” featuring Travis Scott and “Take Me Back to LA” we see how easily The Weeknd drowns back within the abyss of his stardom despite wanting a different life. 

“Reflections Laughing” includes a phone call from a woman telling The Weeknd that she hopes he’s “not back to the old you,” and she’s “worried you worked so hard to be better and now you’re back, drowning in that shit.” This further portrays how difficult it has been for The Weeknd to let go of this toxic persona he has cultivated for the past 14 years. 

We see that the rush of fame continues to be addicting for the Weeknd as “Take Me Back To LA” forces him to compare how the fame hit way better when he first popped off than it does now. This song fully contradicts his song “Escape From LA” off After Hours as The Weeknd wishes he could do it all over again but the right way as he lists some regrets in his career such as leaving Toronto too young and wanting his soul back after the Starboy era. 

My two favorite songs on the album are “Enjoy The Show” and “Given Up On Me” which both feature Future. On “Enjoy The Show” The Weeknd’s heartbreaking lyrics and self-deprecating inner feelings being brought to the light is shattering. He talks to his fans directly, hoping they enjoyed the ride while simultaneously letting them know that this whole time he’s been struggling with drug addiction in order to continue pushing out the best quality of music. “Take another hit, or my music, they won’t feel it, I just wanna die when I’m at my f*ckin’ peak,” he sings. It’s a punch to the gut to many fans as it highlights the stress of being a commercially successful artist who wants longevity and to please their fans. 

“Given Up On Me” is my most revisited song from Hurry Up Tomorrow so far. An intense hip-hop production style in the first half allows The Weeknd to proclaim that he needs to be let go of whether it be by the fans or the fame itself. This soon transitions into a falsetto-driven second half where The Weeknd is beautifully singing over a simple piano loop mixed with the occasional use of delicate synths and a groovy bassline. The sudden shift in tone symbolizes The Weeknd’s desire to escape the suffocation of fame while also coming to terms with his complicity in it. The second half of the song is more memorable for me as the artist accepts that a life of fame is not healthy for him, referring to fame as his sunshine and asking for God’s guidance after letting go of his stardom. “You’re no good for me, baby, my sunshine, It’s not good for me, no, the sunshine, ooh Lord I want your company,” The Weeknd sings. 

It’s worth noting that the surprise features were incorporated well within this album without taking up much of the spotlight. I feel like artists like Travis Scott on “Reflections Laughing” and Lana Del Rey on “The Abyss” played their roles well within the grand cinematic finale that Hurry Up Tomorrow is. 

However, it is also worth considering that this album is very long as most of the songs on Hurry Up Tomorrow reach the 5-minute mark. While each song’s length doesn’t feel noticeable at first, some tracks at the back-end of the album feel long-winded like “Big Sleep” and “Drive” which didn’t really add to the overall narrative. Despite its long length, it's still a great album. 

Hurry Up Tomorrow is a culmination of everything The Weeknd has poured out throughout his career all put into one listen. It’s only the beginning of 2025 and it’s already a strong contender for album of the year. 

The Weeknd’s career ended in the same way it began: with a trilogy. The album’s final song “Hurry Up Tomorrow” perfectly transitions into The Weeknd’s first ever released song “High For This” on his first mixtape House Of Balloons signifying a loop and officially the end of The Weeknd. With all this in mind, there is likely going to be a debate going forward on whether or not this is The Weeknd’s magnum opus. Personally, I think it's the perfect final chapter to his legacy.

The title of the album is a plea to move on as The Weeknd’s 14-year-long career has felt like the same day over and over again. As for what’s next for The Weeknd, it’s clear that he is bringing death to his artistic self and could potentially be dropping music under his real name Abel Tasfaye. After his tour with rapper Playboi Carti, he could also be stepping away from music for a while and focusing on his acting career as the album is accompanied by a film with the same name starring himself, Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan which is releasing in May. 

No matter what Tesfaye does next, his time as The Weeknd will not be forgotten. He has changed the sound of both R&B and pop music while donning the iconic persona and goes out with a strong finish with Hurry Up Tomorrow as his farewell. 

Rating: 8.8/10