Dawn FM (Standard Vinyl)

ザ・ウィークエンドが2020年3月にリリースしたアルバム『After Hours』から約2年ぶり、5作目となるアルバム『Dawn FM』を1月7日(金)に突如サプライズ配信!

このフィジカル盤には、タイラー・ザ・クリエイター、リル・ウェイン、クインシー・ジョーンズ、ジム・キャリーなどが参加している。

ゲスト陣の豪華さはさることながら、アルバム収録曲の「Out Of Time」では日本人歌手の亜蘭知子の「Midnight Pretenders」がサンプリングとして使われている。

"Blinding Lights" artistically and commercially was so optimal for Abel Tesfaye that it quickly became his signature song, and was only two years old when Billboard announced that it had rocketed past Chubby Checkers "The Twist" to claim the title of all-time number one hit. For the follow-up to "Blinding Lights" parent album After Hours, Tesfaye delves deeper into the early- to mid-80s pop aesthetic. He resurfaces with a conceptual sequel designed as a broadcast heard by a motorist stuck in a purgatorial tunnel. The primary collaborators are "Blinding Lights" co-producers Max Martin and Oscar Holter, plus fellow After Hours cohort Daniel Lopatin, whose airwaves-themed 2020 LP Magic Oneohtrix Point Never was executive produced by Tesfaye. Instead of scrambled voices like those heard on the OPN album, Dawn FM features recurrent announcements from Jim Carrey as a serene and faintly creepy character, or maybe himself, intonating end-of-life entertainment and counsel. The other unlikely appearances -- Quincy Jones with a spoken autobiographical interlude, Beach Boy Bruce Johnston somewhere in the cocksure "how its going" outlier "Here We Go...Again" -- are ostentatious. In the main, this is a space for Tesfaye to fully indulge his frantic romantic side as his co-conspirators whip up fluorescent throwback Euro-pop with muscle and nuance. Tesfayes almost fathomless vocal facility elevates even the most rudimentary expressions of co-dependency, despair, regret, and obsession, and he helps it all go down easier with station ID jingles and an amusingly hyped-up ad for "a compelling work of science fiction" called (the) "After Life." The set peaks early with a sequence of dejected post-disco jams that writhe, percolate, and chug. Most of these songs surpass the bulk of Daft Punks similarly backward-gazing Random Access Memories, projecting the same lust for life with underlying existential doom as Italo disco nuggets such as Ryan Paris "Dolce Vita." Toward the end of that first-half stretch, Tesfaye reaffirms his R&B roots and affinity for Michael Jackson with a cut built from Alicia Myers 1981 gospel boogie classic "I Want to Thank You." After that, it slows down and stretches out a bit to varying effect, dipping into Japanese city pop for the bittersweet and remorseful "Out of Time" and edging ever so achingly toward Latin freestyle with "Dont Break My Heart." Just before Carreys epilogue, Tesfaye and company pick up the pace with "Less Than Zero." Rather than use the title as a prompt to sink back into detailing debauchery, Tesfaye makes the song this albums "Scared to Live," a sentimental ballad thats hard to resist. ~ Andy Kellman

〈アフターアワーズ〉の次は〈夜明け〉と題したFMラジオ仕立てのコンセプト・アルバム。サウンドは完全に80年代モードで、亜蘭知子の83年曲を引用して話題を呼んだ"Out Of Time"やマイケル感全開の"Sacrifice"など、音だけなら軽妙でメロディアスで聴きやすさ満点。だが、どこか痛々しいラヴソングや死生観の織り込みなどウィークエンドらしい美学を意識すると、フレッシュなリヴァイヴァルとしての80年代でなく、虚像や空騒ぎの80年代テイストへと印象が変わるから不思議だ。恋に落ちる様子を美しいファルセットで歌うが、タイラー・ザ・クリエイターがダミ声で婚前契約を迫って台無しにするR&B"Here We Go... Again"をはじめ、毒気と悪趣味もある意味楽しい。夜明けの次は何でしょうね。
bounce (C)池谷瑛子