Open Post: Hosted By The Weeknd’s Latest Look
This might be The Weeknd’s most shocking aesthetic choice yet. He went…OLD. By choice! Every showbusiness plastic surgeon just dry heaved until their throat collapsed. The Weeknd loves to have a signature look that carries him through the release of each of his albums. For After Hours, we saw The Weeknd covered in blood and bandages, which was followed by a face full of Dr. Miami-approved pretend plastic surgery prosthetics. On Friday, The Weeknd releases his latest album, Dawn FM, and according to a tweet posted by The Weeknd earlier today, that picture above is the album cover.
The Weeknd also released a trailer for the album, which is narrated by Jim Carrey, playing what sounds like a radio DJ of the aforementioned Dawn FM. I need to know if at any point in time, Jim said, “Sssssssomebody stop him!” when he realized The Weeknd was leaning into another visual gimmick. No, I’m sure everyone loves when The Weeknd gets dressed up in a costume and method acts his way through an album release. Especially the spirit gum industry, the fake hair factory, and Big Latex.
That trailer is more confusing than Jim Carrey’s involvement in all of this. It looks like The Weeknd is carried into some kind of Eyes Wide Shut-style robe-wearing cult (which would actually be pretty on-brand for his upcoming HBO show, The Idol, about a cult leader). Then he’s in some kind of Star Wars, middle-of-the-Death Star situation featuring a thin white substance that blasts him full of energy. A metaphor for coke perhaps? Then we cut between current-day Weeknd and Old Man Weeknd. What I’m getting from this is some kind of dark, nihilistic take on Freaky Friday. I just want to know how method he goes when he’s in the old makeup. I’ll have to wait until Friday to see if there’s a track that’s just Old Weeknd mumbling to himself. “The Weeknd? The lazy whipper snappers. Back in my day, you were up and at ’em by 5am on a weekday. And you got shin splints every day by 3pm from walking everywhere uphill, and you were grateful for it!”
Pic: Twitter