The Weeknd’s New Album Dawn FM Out Friday, Features Jim Carrey
It’s the first week of 2021 and we’re already getting our first blockbuster album of the year. The Weeknd has announced that his new album Dawn FM is dropping this Friday, less than two years after the world-conquering After Hours. The list of features on the project is extremely promising: Quincy Jones, Lil Wayne, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Tyler, The Creator. And, uh, Jim Carrey, who recently became tight bros with the Weeknd, bonding over their love of telescopes.
Abel Tesfaye has been talking up his new LP for months now, calling it a dance-floor odyssey and “the album I’ve always wanted to make.” GQ’s Mark Anthony Green described some new tracks like so:
The new project is packed with party records. Like real-deal, illuminated-white-tiles-on-the-floor party records. Quincy Jones meets Giorgio Moroder meets the best-night-of-your-fucking-life party records. Not anachronistic disco stuff. (Not “cosplay,” as Abel put it.) That sort of retro thing is having a moment right now in pop music, but these records are new. Sweaty. Hard. Drenched-suit, grinding-on-the-girl/boy-of-your-dreams party records.
Back in August Tesfaye shared “Take My Breath,” the first single from Dawn FM. It was great. On New Year’s Day, he posted a screenshot of a text conversation on Instagram, in which he wrote, “Happy new year! Everything feels chaotic again. Music can heal and that feels more important than another album rollout. Let’s just drop the whole thing and enjoy it with the people… XO.”
Now he has shared a one-minute trailer billing Dawn FM as “a new sonic universe from the mind of the Weeknd.” In it, a voice (Carrey?) declares, “You are now listening to 103.5 Dawn FM. You’ve been in the dark way too long. It’s time to walk into the light and accept your fate with open arms.” That voice appears to be Carrey, who has chimed in with the following message on Twitter:
I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night. It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony. ;^•
Watch the Dawn FM trailer below.
The Dawn is out 1/7 on XO/Republic.