The Weeknd After Hours (2 LP)

Double LP Featuring "Heartless" & "Blinding Lights"!
Rolling Stone's The 50 Best Albums of 2020 - Rated 32/50!
Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums Of 2020 - Rated 15/50!
After Hours is the fourth studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd. It was released on March 20, 2020, by XO and Republic Records. The standard edition of the album contains no guest appearances, but the deluxe edition features Ariana Grande and the remixes edition features Chromatics and Lil Uzi Vert. Production was primarily handled by the Weeknd alongside a variety of producers, including DaHeala, Illangelo, Max Martin, Metro Boomin, and OPN, most of whom the Weeknd had worked with previously.
Prior to the album's release, the Weeknd confirmed that After Hours would contrast stylistically with its predecessor, Starboy (2016); some music journalists have noted the album reflects an artistic reinvention for the Weeknd, with the introduction of new wave and dream pop influences. The album's title is borrowed from the 1985 film of the same name, while its artwork and aesthetic was inspired by various other films. Thematically, After Hours explores loneliness, self-loathing, and escapism. It is also the first installment in a trilogy of albums, preceding Dawn FM (2022) and Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025).
After Hours was supported by five singles: "Heartless", "Blinding Lights", the title track, "In Your Eyes", and "Save Your Tears". The former two reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, with the latter's remix with Grande also topping the chart. The album opened with first-week sales of 444,000 album-equivalent units in the U.S. and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, marking the Weeknd's fourth U.S. number-one album. Internationally, it peaked at number one in 20 countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its production and cohesion; some critics named it the Weeknd's best work.
Filtering R&B, pop and hip-hop through an ambitious widescreen lens, The Weeknd quietly took over popular music and culture on his own terms. As a result, the multi-platinum two-time GRAMMY® Award winner has emerged as one of the most successful and significant artists of the 21st century.
"Rarely do such extensively marketed albums artistically deliver, but After Hours is a pop masterpiece... It's an endlessly replayable album, a 'brain melting psychotic chapter' successful in every way... The standard weight discs, digitally mastered at 44.1/24 by Dave Kutch and cut by Mark Santangelo, sound as expected: bright but detailed and far more engaging than the file. The difference feels like a completely different album; the synths immerse you right into the Weeknd's world." - Malachi Lui, Analog Planet
No doubt inspired by the pawn shop, hologram glaze that ensconces the Safdies' filmography - after all, he did appear in their magnum opus, "Uncut Gems - The Weeknd returns not as a starboy but a starman. After Hours wastes zero time making that point clear with opener 'Alone Again' warping right into his soul. Yet, it's not exactly a torturous space anymore; instead, his introspections are laced with an adventurous spirit that's as affecting as it is addicting." - Michael Roffman, Consequence of Sound Top 50 Albums Of 2020 - Rated 15/50
"Abel Tesfaye is at his best when he follows his moody impulses through sleek sounds, and he did that brilliantly on his 2020 synth-pop smash 'Blinding Lights.' The rest of After Hours is his best version yet of his go-to lachrymose lushness, splitting the difference between glowering self-indulgence and Top 40 smoothness on post-breakup purges like 'Hardest to Love' and 'Too Late,' as well as the Elton John-interpolating 'Scared to Live,' and his vocal flexes throughout the LP prove once again that he's one of the most gifted R&B crooners to hit the radio this century. Hard to love? Perhaps. But on After Hours, he's never been easier to like." - Rolling Stone, The 50 Best Albums of 2020, Rated 32/50

Features:

• Double LP
• Black Vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Made in EU
• Explicit Content

Selections:

Side A
1. Alone Again
2. Too Late
3. Hardest To Love
4. Scared To Live
Side B
1. Snowchild
2. Escape From LA
3. Heartless
4. Faith
Side C
1. Blinding Lights
2. In Your Eyes
3. Save Your Tears
Side D
1. Repeat After Me (Interlude)
2. After Hours
3. Until I Bleed Out