Dawn FM is barely one week old but The Weeknd has already confirmed that his latest album is part of a wider trilogy.

The Canadian star took to social media to tease fans with the surprise reveal. “i wonder… did you know you’re experiencing a new trilogy?” he wrote on Twitter.

The Weeknd has previous with trilogies: he released a 2012 compilation album, simply titled Trilogy, that brought together all three of his 2011 mixtapes (House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence).

That’s made fans consider the possibility that 2020’s After Hours and now Dawn FM are the first two parts of a further trilogy, with his next album completing it. He teased a connection between the first two back in May, when he said “if the last record is the After Hours of the night, then The Dawn is coming” in an interview with Variety.

The Weeknd – real name Abel Tesfaye – released his fifth studio album on January 7th. Dawn FM racked up 60 million streams on Spotify in just the first 24 hours. It features guest appearances from Tyler, the Creator, Lil Wayne, Oneohtrix Point Never, and even comedian and actor Jim Carrey.

The album has been a critical success. The Guardian called it “a stunning display of absolute pop prowess”, insisting that the artists has confirmed “his status as an all-time great with an album of icy 80s-inflected splendour.” Pitchfork hailed it as the “most thoughtful, melodic, and revealing project of his career.”

Timbaland even compared Dawn FM to Michael Jackson’s masterpiece album Thriller, which prompted a lot of feelings from fans of both artists. “This album’s different, yo,” the producer commented on social media. “This shit right here, this on some Thriller shit. Trust me when I tell you. And the way he dropped this shit yo… congrats. This shit is amazing.”

For more on this topic, follow the Hip Hop Observer.

Check out ‘Take My Breath’ by The Weeknd:

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