All bets regarding
Abel Tesfaye
's career arc were off once
Trilogy
, material previously released at no (financial) cost to the listener, went platinum. For a period after that, it seemed like the singer had peaked just short of pop-star status. His eager congregation pushed
Kiss Land
, the proper debut, to number two in the U.S., yet none of its singles, not even the one that featured
Drake
, reached the Hot 100. "Love Me Harder," a duet with labelmate
Ariana Grande
released in 2014, proved to be a masterstroke. It put
Tesfaye
in the Top Ten for the first time and began a streak of similarly effective singles that preceded -- and are included on --
Beauty Behind the Madness
. "Earned It," a ballad recorded for the
Fifty Shades of Grey
soundtrack, showed that he could adapt to a traditional pop backdrop. That cut a path for "The Hills," in which
alleviated his "day one" base with a typically degenerate slow jam, co-produced by
Illangelo
, that affirmed "When I'm fucked up, that's the real me" while taking the toxic narrative a step further with lines like "Drugs started feelin' like it's decaf." And then "Can't Feel My Face," a sleek slice of retro-modern disco-funk produced by
Max Martin
and
Ali Payami
, landed in June 2015. An obvious pop move, it worked -- it went to number one in the U.S. and several other territories.
skillfully delivered his biggest hooks as he sang about dependency in that part-anguished, part-euphoric fashion derived from
Michael Jackson
. Like its advance singles, the rest of
is R&B and pop as drug-den paella: chemical and sexual abasement, self-loathing, and self-absorbed belligerence over narcotized sludge and less expected moves that peak with the wholly sweet "As You Are" and crest with a big-band diversion on "Losers." Collaborations with
Kanye West
,
Ed Sheeran
, and
Lana Del Rey
add star power; the last of that pack contributes to a moment where
turns another corner by acknowledging a dead end through the fog, "addicted to a life that's so empty and so cold." The commercial strides are obvious. The creative advancements are less apparent, but they're in there. ~ Andy Kellman