kilocycles per second presents... The Weeknd - House of Balloons ▄▓▀▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ █▀■─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ ■▄▄█▓▒░ RELEASE INFO ▄▄▄─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ █ ARTiST The Weeknd TiTLE House of Balloons GENRE Electronic SUBGENRE Pop / R&B / Swing LABEL Not On Label CAT.NR None YEAR 2012 SOURCE FREEWEB ENCODER FhG QUALiTY 320kbps SiZE 113,5 MB ▄▓▀▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ █▀■─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ ■▄▄█▓▒░ TRACKS ▄▄▄─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ █ 01 The Weeknd - High For This 04:08 02 The Weeknd - What You Need 03:26 03 The Weeknd - House Of Balloons / Glass 06:47 Table Girls 04 The Weeknd - The Morning 05:13 05 The Weeknd - Wicked Games 05:25 06 The Weeknd - The Party & The After Party 07:39 07 The Weeknd - Coming Down 04:55 08 The Weeknd - Loft Music 06:02 09 The Weeknd - The Knowing 05:56 ------- Total: 49:31 min ▄▓▀▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ █▀■─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ ■▄▄█▓▒░ NOTES ▄▄▄─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ █ The Weeknd is 21-year-old Toronto resident Abel Tesfaye. House of Balloons is his debut album, distributed freely online, and it's quite unlike any other RnB collection to have emerged in 2011. Thanks to a Twitter leg-up from fellow Toronto artist Drake, Tesfaye has seen his underground tracks edge towards the mainstream, and earlier this month House of Balloons made the shortlist for the Polaris Prize, Canada's equivalent of the Mercury. Come 19 September Tesfaye could be both $30,000 better off - that's the prize money on offer - and in a position to genuinely vie for album-of-2011 top spots. The foundation stones have certainly been laid. At the end of June, House of Balloons featured on numerous best-of-2011-so-far lists - number nine at Stereogum, number one at Complex; a spot on Spin's (unranked) list of the best 25 - and was the highest-rated album of the period according to Metacritic, ahead of PJ Harvey and Bon Iver. The stage is set, then, for this to really impress come December's shuffle of the past-12-months pack. Only, Tesfaye isn't limiting himself to just this release - due in the summer and autumn respectively are Thursday and Echoes of Silence, wholly new collections. It's entirely feasible, based on the quality of House of Balloons, that this single artist could have three entries in the upper reaches of many top albums lists. And, should said brace match this recording's mix of bruised confessionals and heart-squeezed yearning, set to elegant production and some choice sampling (Tesfaye lifts from Beach House, twice, and Siouxsie and the Banshees for his fantastic title-track), such domination will be deserved. From the opener onwards, House of Balloons impresses immensely with its compositional restraint - imagine The xx if they'd further pursued their natural RnB leanings - and Tesfaye's acrobatic vocals. He overstretches himself on occasions, but never to such an extent that songs don't linger long after they've faded to a resigned silence. High for This finds our protagonist promising that a relationship is built to last - but there's doubt in his voice. This uncertainty and open vulnerability runs the set's length, even when he's claiming "he's what you want, (but) I'm what you need" on the very next cut. Later, he's torn to shreds on Wicked Games: "I need confidence in myself," he says, before desperately pleading for a partner to tell him she loves him, "Only for tonightà even though you don't love me". Come Loft Music he can't stand to look ahead - "I'm living for the present, and the future don't exist" - and like the similarly aged Tyler, the Creator, whose controversial-in-some-corners raps are merely a means of escape from what have become everyday pressures, he's caught in a moment that might be too much for one so young. This lyrical tone isn't so far away from Drake's short- on-stereotypical-braggadocio Thank Me Later - one of the best albums of 2010 - and in a production sense House of Balloons recalls both The-Dream, albeit stripped of his swagger, and Frank Ocean, whose freely distributed nostalgia, ULTRA release of February 2011 will soon be repackaged in the UK via Mercury. Ocean, an Odd Future affiliate, was among the contributors to BeyoncΘ's recently released album 4 and has worked with Kanye West and Jay-Z, and both Drake and The-Dream are megastars in their field. There's every chance that Tesfaye will follow them into superstardom, and he exhibits enough originality, sparkle and soul across these nine tracks to suggest he could one day surpass their successes - perhaps sometime around December. (bbc.co.uk) URL: http://the-weeknd.com/ ▄▓▀▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ █▀■─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ ■▄▄█▓▒░ ABOUT ▄▄▄─────────────────────────────┤░▒▓█▀ █ We are a small number of hard-working guys that want to share their deep passion for good electronic music with you! Helping... If your group does not give you the opportunity to have your possibly dupe release pred internally, we would be proud and open to receive your contribution to the scene as a supplier to us. Contact: [email protected]