Popular music artist Abel Tesfaye, artistically known as the Weeknd, released his newest album Hurry Up Tomorrow on Jan. 31. The 22-track album brings us familiar voices including those of Lana Del Rey, Playboi Carti, Future, and Travis Scott, while also showcasing Tesfaye’s own new musical talents. Through some speculation, this could also be the last album which the singer releases under his “The Weeknd” alias. 

Tesfaye’s 2022 album Dawn FM followed the theme of a radio station, and Hurry Up Tomorrow picks up right where Dawn left off. The album opens with “Wake Me Up,” in which listeners are immediately brought along on a journey that goes much further than the usual love-and-heartbreak. Since his early rookie days, The Weeknd has been pushing the limit with his original R&B and inventive synthesized sounds, and Tomorrow is no different.

Continuing on through the album, you’ll find an interesting mix of different songs and styles. There are ambiguous creative bits like “Until We’re Skin & Bones,” there are immediately-popular hits like “Timeless,” there are great signature Tesfaye-style creations like “Baptized in Fear”—whatever your interest, Tomorrow seems to have it all.

Honestly, though, it’s not fully clear whether “having it all” is really enough for a nearly hour-and-a-half long LP, eagerly awaited by fans for years. Perhaps it is; perhaps the couple of excellent songs and several good ones put together are enough to make up for the other “eh” songs. But, that is certainly a choice left up to listeners’ discretion.

For instance, take “Take Me Back To LA.” Is it Tesfaye? Is it his beats, his general style, his voice, is it him? Certainly. But would you honestly listen to this song more than once, let alone regularly?

This is sort of the dilemma of Tomorrow. It’s by no means a bad album, and it definitely has some great, authentically-Tesfaye tracks. But parts of it feel undone, unfinished, incomplete. Perhaps this is the nature of making songs, perhaps it is the nature of harnessing a talent as great as that of Tesfaye. Overall, this was a so-so album, and it was hard to decide whether this was one for the books or not, it’s up to the listeners.