After teasing its arrival for months, The Weeknd‘s new album ‘Dawn FM’ has finally arrived.
The follow-up to 2020’s ‘After Hours’ is Abel Tesfaye’s fifth studio album, and features guest appearances from the likes of Tyler, the Creator, Oneohtrix Point Never, Lil Wayne. It features narration from actor Jim Carrey, who praised the record as “deep and elegant” on social media.
Listen to ‘Dawn FM’ below:
The Weeknd is launching the album alongside a “livestream experience” for which he partnered with Amazon Music. The event kicked off 5am UK time today (January 7) on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and in the Amazon Music app. The event, ‘103.5 Dawn FM’, is being broadcast by the singer from Los Angeles.
The arrival of ‘Dawn FM’ was signalled on New Year’s Day, when Tesfaye shared a screenshot of a text exchange between himself and his creative director La Mar Taylor. “Everything feels chaotic again. Music can heal and that feels more important than another album rollout,” Tesfaye wrote. “Let’s just drop the whole thing and enjoy it with the people.”
A few days later, Tesfaye confirmed that ‘Dawn FM’ would be arriving today, and shared its tracklist and artwork – which features the 31-year-old singer as an old man – in the past week.
‘Dawn FM’ was previewed with one single, ‘Take My Breath’, back in August of last year. NME called the track a “strong first step” in The Weeknd’s new era upon its arrival.
Earlier this week, Tesfaye said physical copies of ‘Dawn FM’ not being available in stores upon release week – which would affect the album’s sales figures in its first week – “doesn’t matter” to him. “What matters is getting to experience the album together with the fans during these times,” the singer wrote on Twitter.
Outside of working on ‘Dawn FM’, Tesfaye had a busy 2021. He released a string of collaborative tracks with the likes of Ariana Grande, Doja Cat, Belly, Young Thug, Nas, Swedish House Mafia, Post Malone, FKA twigs and more.