The Weeknd is teasing a new album. It appears to (1) be the concluding chapter of his After Hours/Dawn FM trilogy, and (2) be really fucking existential. Abel Tesfaye captioned his CGI teaser “When you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you,†one of Friedriech Nietzsche’s absolute bangers off Beyond Good & Evil. Nietzsche’s treatise criticizes philosophers who rest their moral framework on the assumption that good and evil are opposites. Instead, he puts forward the case for moral relativism, and that The Idol was neither good nor bad but a secret third thing.
The album tease comes on the same day a Hollywood Reporter cover story lays a lot of the blame for Euphoria delays/the professional breakup of Sam Levinson and his producing partner Kevin Turen at Abel’s door (which was featured as a location on The Idol, BTW).
In previous interviews, Tesfaye has hinted that this album will be the last under his “the Weeknd†moniker, and that he intends to “kill†the character. “The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as the Weeknd,†he said in 2023. “This is something that I have to do. As the Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.â€