On her first ever double album, the Canadian artist splits her time between lightly psychedelic pop and reassuringly classy club bangers

On what was meant to be the last date of his 2022 tour, The Weeknd took the stage at Inglewood, California’s SoFi Stadium, but when he opened his mouth to sing for 80,000 screaming fans, nothing came out. Over the past 14 years, Abel Tesfaye has experienced what you might call pop’s glow-up of the century: When he emerged from obscurity as the faceless voice behind 2011’s noir-ish <i>House of Balloons</i> mixtape, nobody could have guessed that he’d be headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show a decade later. But that moment onstage triggered what Tesfaye has since described as a breakdown, inspiring a period of intense reflection on his life and career—and <i>Hurry Up Tomorrow</i>, his sixth studio album. Tesfaye has called <i>Tomorrow</i> the final chapter in the trilogy he began with 2020’s <i>After Hours</i>, the album that launched him into a new stratosphere of pop success, and continued with 2022’s high-concept <i>Dawn FM</i>. Continuing the narrative of its semi-autobiographical narrator’s journey through a dark night of the soul, <i>Tomorrow</i> doubles as an allegory about fame’s power to destroy: The curtain rises, and it’s all downhill from there. He longs for a time “when my blood never tasted like wine,” he wails over the night-drive synth-pop of “Take Me Back to LA,” and diagnoses fame as a disease on the glittering “Drive.” He’s ready to leave it all behind on “Wake Me Up,” a collaboration with French duo Justice: “No afterlife, no other side,” he sings, sounding entranced by the thought. Its 22 tracks play out like the swan song to end all swan songs, joined by a murderer’s row of guests: Future lends a layer of scuzz to the deceptively sweet R&B slow-burner “Enjoy the Show,” Anitta taps in for the nocturnal baile funk of “São Paulo,” and frequent collaborator Lana Del Rey makes an appearance on “The Abyss,” where ominous lyrics like, “What’s the point of staying? It’s going up in flames” hit even harder after LA’s devastating fires in January 2025. Tesfaye has dropped repeated hints that this album won’t just close out the trilogy, but also his existence as The Weeknd. If that’s the case, “Without a Warning” encapsulates the arc of an artist who never let success get in the way of his ambition: “Take me to a time/When I was young/And my heart could take the drugs and heartache without loss/But now my bones are frail/And my voice fails/And my tears fall without a warning/Either way, the crowd will scream my name.”

Tate McRae 幾乎沒有一刻不在追求進步。這位現年 21 歲的加拿大全能才女，六歲就開始接受密集舞蹈訓練，16 歲簽下唱片合約，如今已是 2025 年朱諾獎提名最多的藝人。她的第三張錄音室專輯，於前作《THINK LATER》2024 世界巡演結束幾個月後問世。「巡演一年簡直像過了一百萬年。你會覺得：『天哪，我好像走了一輩子。』」McRae 告訴 Apple Music。話雖如此，她還是很珍惜這段時間，把每一刻都當成學習的機會。「每次登台表演，都能更了解自己，也能對周遭一切變得更敏感。」她開始更留心傾聽有哪些歌讓她情不自禁想要起舞，又有哪種節奏能帶領她的舞群進入狀態，或者用她的話說，「嗨起來」。 《So Close To What》並非典型的夜店舞曲專輯，反而更像一張直指人心的流行唱片，適合搬上萬人大合唱的舞台。它的情緒底色參考了 Timbaland 和 The Neptunes 的作品，他們動感鮮活的製作風格，讓 21 世紀第一個十年的流行樂聽起來像是未來之聲。華麗、閃耀，並適合夜店播放的 2000 年代 R&B 元素在此輯中隨處可見：Flo Milli 客串的〈bloodonmyhands〉喚起了 Miami Bass 的懷舊質感，而〈Purple lace bra〉則像是 The-Dream〈Love vs. Money〉和 Lana Del Rey〈Born to Die〉的混血，考慮到後者的專輯製作人 Emile Haynie 也參與了該曲的製作，這一點並不令人意外。在〈Sports car〉中，McRae 和共同創作人 Julia Michaels 從一首 2005 年的 Crunk 經典中獲得了意想不到的靈感。「Michaels 一直很想引用 Ying Yang Twins 的〈Wait (The Whisper Song)〉，我當時的反應是『這也太瘋狂了』，結果證明，這個想法非常奏效。」 據 McRae 所說，本作之所以能成為她至今創作完成度最高的一張專輯，是因為創作夥伴大多為女性，像 Julia Michaels 和 Amy Allen 這樣的詞曲創作者都為她獻策良多。「女性之間顯然更能理解彼此對音樂創作和各種事物的看法。」McRae 解釋道：「讓另一個女孩來理解你的經歷和感受，你才能更好地寫出一首歌。創作時齊心協力，下筆就不會一團亂。和女孩們一起吐苦水，一起獲得滿足和成就感，這樣真的很暢快。」 《So Close to What》最初在 2025 年 2 月 21 日发行时，标准数字版是 15 首、约 42 分钟。Apple Music 现在仍然保留着这个最初版本的独立条目。 后来发行几天后，她又在流媒体上追加了一首： 15 首原版 → 没有 “Siren sounds” 16 首更新版 → 多了 “Siren sounds”，被放在第 15 首，原本最后一首 “Nostalgia” 顺延到第 16 首。