The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk - Starboy review

In case you haven't been paying attention to pop music in 2016 - something which I wouldn't blame you for - It hasn't been good. Bland, half-formed songs have been clogging up the radio and the charts pretty much all year. This is in contrast to the incredible year for pop that was 2015: There was a huge variety of genuinely great rap, pop, electronic dance music and R&B from newcomers and established artists alike. One of the most promising newcomers (at least to this level of success.) was an alternative R&B artist who became absolutely massive off the back of his 3 massive hits, 'Earned it', 'Can't feel my face' and 'The Hills', the latter two reaching number 1 in the US and number 3 over here in the UK - Abel Makkonen Tesfaye AKA The Weeknd.

Therefore, the pressure on Tesfaye for his next album is almost unimaginably big. His 2015 effort 'Beauty behind the madness' was met with good-but-not-amazing reception, but the combination of having hugely loved singles and the sales of over 2 million in the US alone meant that a lot was riding on how good this new song 'Starboy' was. Luckily for everybody, it's very good.




It begins with some sharp, chugging beats courtesy of Daft Punk that alone raise the the song above many mediocre, sleepy rhythms (Think pretty much anything from 'Views') from the top 10 this year. These combine with the throbbing bass and the sparse piano keys to set the edgy, dark atmosphere we've come to expect from The Weeknd. Tesfaye's voice is a great match for his lyrics, which are even then probably the weakest part of the song as a whole - Basically the Weeknd boasting about how much of everything he has since he hit it big - and even then they're still miles more interesting than most of this years crap, mainly because he's blaming the public for putting in this position and with aforementioned 2 million sales, he kinda has a point.

The chorus is especially great, with daft punk using their trademark robot voices for some 'Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha' backing vocals as Tesfaye's voice breaks into one of the best falsettos on the radio. Equally amazing is the video which shows the Weekend killing himself before revealing that he has *gasp* changed his notorious hairstyle into something sharper and more cohesive - just like his music - before he smashes up all of his awards and trophies from the 'old' Weeknd. If you haven't heard the song yet (You probably have, it's currently number 3 in the UK and number 2 in the US) I've linked the video above, so please check it out. It might just be your favourite hit of the year.
9/10