Album Of The Week - The Weeknd

                       

Selling out has rarely sounded so good.

In late 2010, an unknown artist known as The Weeknd slinked onto music blogs and into R&B fans' playlists with his gloomy, carnal love songs. Through the power of word-of-mouth, the evasive troubadour (real name: Abel Tesfaye) gained an early champion in rap titan Drake and played sold-out shows years before his formal debut album, 2013's Kiss Land, hit. And yet, his brooding sound and private persona stymied him from ever crossing over into the mainstream.

That all changed this past year, with well-placed contributions to the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack and an enviable feature on Ariana Grande's top-10 hit Love Me Harder. With pop super-producers Max Martin and Peter Svensson behind him, The Weeknd has since charted three top-five smashes of his own — including the Michael Jackson-channeling Can't Feel My Face, which grooved to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this month. He also got what may be 2015's closest thing to a career coronation: a Face duet with Taylor Swift on her 1989 World Tour this summer.

Which brings us to The Weeknd's second album, Beauty Behind the Madness, arriving Friday with the weight of expectations on its shoulders. Is this truly the bedroom-soundtrack Messiah we've waited for, or did he lose his touch somewhere on the road to global dominance? The latter, if his polished, but regrettably soulless Beauty (** out of four) is any indication.

"Tell 'em this boy wasn't made for lovin' / tell 'em this heart doesn't stay to one, " the album's stilted, stadium-rock opener Real Life begins, setting the tone for the emotional whiplash The Weeknd subjects himself and others to throughout its 14 tracks. On the wish-fulfillment As You Are, he's something of a musical Magic Mike: crooning over sleepy synths how he'll take a lover despite all her scars and flaws, only to backtrack three songs later on the mawkish Angel, admitting he's a sinner and wishing her luck in finding someone new. In The Weeknd's world, love is messy, but it's also riddled with clichés, as he recycles tired braggadocio about chasing money, girls and parties nearly every song.

Where Beauty finds salvation is in its starry guest roster. Although the seemingly well-matched Lana Del Rey doesn't ignite sparks on Prisoner, crackling guitar duet Dark Times with Ed Sheeran is a first-class ticket to Swoon City. On the Labrinth-assisted Losers, The Weeknd maneuvers a sulky, percussive EDM banger with surprising aplomb, while Kanye West steps in as producer/backup vocalist for Tell Your Friends, a downtempo piano ballad sampling Soul Dog's Can't Stop Loving You.

Familiar hits Face, The Hills and Often are welcome in the jumble, although they add to the notion that Beauty is less a cohesive album than an incubator for future singles. And maybe there's nothing really wrong with that — after all, he's earned it.

Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY