The breakup of the Weeknd and Selena Gomez left many causalities in its wake (namely his ego and ability for his heart to go on) but also, apparently, some music. While their split eventually led to the dirge that was the Weeknd’s My Dear Melancholy, the singer now tells Time that he had intended to share some happier songs before the couple imploded. Prior to Melancholy’s existence, the Weeknd says he wrote a different, uncharacteristically jovial album. “Prior to Melancholy, I had a whole album written, done. Which wasn’t melancholy at all because it was a different time in my life,†he says. “It was very upbeat — it was beautiful.†But heartbreak is ugly and now that album won’t ever see the light of day: “I don’t want to perform something that I don’t feel,†he says, adding that we’ll “never†hear it. You also won’t hear him discuss the women that inspire him either because he doesn’t “want to open that Pandora’s box, talking about relationships.†Though he clarifies, for the curious, that he is “without a doubt†single, not that he needed to tell us — prying eyes have already caught him mingling.