The Weeknd has kicked off the New Year with a bang by teasing fans with the arrival of his largely anticipated fifth studio album.
The artist has been teasing the follow-up to 2020’s After Hours for the last few months, revealing in October that the fifth album was almost complete, and the “only thing missing is a couple [of] characters that are key to the narrative.”
In August, he revealed to us the first look at the album with the release of ‘Take My Breath’, a pop funk, synth-wave and disco infused track that NME called “a strong first step” to kick off The Weeknd’s new era.
The latest update on the currently untitled album comes in the form of an image shared by the singer of a text conversation between himself and La Mar Taylor, the co-founder of XO Records and The Weeknd’s creative director, shared on New Year’s Day on Instagram.
Taylor opens up the conversation with a: “Happy New Year brother! What we thinking ??” To which The Weeknd replied: “Happy new year! Everything feels chaotic again. Music can heal and that feels more important than another album rollout.”
He then finishes off with: “Let’s just drop the whole thing and enjoy it with the people… XO.”
The post was also accompanied with an image of a smashed iPhone. Whether this is a display of the singer’s excitement at the prospect of dropping his new album or a hint at the new album’s title remains to be seen, but it appears that only time will tell.
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The Weeknd has a massive 2021. With ‘Blinding Lights’ being the longest-charting Billboard 100 song of all time and kickstarting his “new era”, he’s been releasing a whole slew of collaborative tracks. These include the ‘Save Your Tears’ remix with Ariana Grande in April; ‘You Right’ with Doja Cat June; ‘Better Believe’ with Belly and Young Thug in July; ‘Die For It’ alongside Belly (again) and Nas in August; ‘Moth To A Flame’ with Swedish House Mafia in October; and ‘One Right Now’ with Post Malone in November.
Here’s hoping The Weeknd’s 2022 is just as eventful as 2021.
Check out Post Malone’s ‘One Right Now’ with The Weeknd here:
