The Weeknd’s new album Dawn FM hailed as most ‘revealing’ of his career

Canadian musician surprised fans with a new album for 2022

Critics are praising The Weeknd for his latest album, Dawn FM, which was released last week.

The Canadian artist, real name Abel Tesfaye, dropped the project with little fanfare on Friday 7 January.

It includes the single “Take My Breath”, collaborations with Lil Wayne and Tyler, The Creator, and production from Max Martin, Oscar Holter, Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia. The Weeknd executive produced the album alongside Martin and Oneohtrix Point Never (electronic musician Daniel Lopatin).

In a four-star review, The Independent called the album a “sophisticated exercise in facing down old demons”, observing how it served as “a self-knowing contradiction to The Weeknd’s past celebrations of impermanence via one-night stands and sleazy affairs. Now he understands, even regrets, his flighty behaviour.”

Pitchfork awarded the album a high score of 8.0, hailing it as “the Weeknd’s most ambitious project in sound and scope, and the most effective record he’s put out in years”.

In a five-star review for The Guardian, critic Alexis Petridis praised the album for how “effortless and confident” it felt. He referred to it as “very much the sort of thing you might release had you recently been officially crowned an all-time great”.

“This is a cinematic album in more ways than one,” The Times said in its five-star review. “‘Every Angel Is Terrifying’, the most gratifyingly bonkers song on the record, has Moroder-esque synths and an advert for a made-up movie called Afterlife that “makes your current life look like a total comatose snooze fest’”. Just as Dawn FM makes most recent albums seem like the greyest of grey.”

The Telegraph gave Dawn FM four stars and called it The Weeknd’s “most ambitious album to date, and one that shows welcome signs of emotional and psychological growth”.

“The Weeknd has quit his old haunts and is all the more lucid. That sense of clarity is deeply rewarding,” said Rolling Stone in another four-star review.

Read The Independent’s review in full here.