House of Balloons track by track Review
The Weeknd’s stellar debut mixtape reviewed by me (Written on 1/9/17, like this is one of my first reviews so sorry in advance)
The Weeknd — House Of Balloons (2011)
High For This:
“HOB” kicks off with a brilliant opening track “High For This”, which is such a fitting opening. I couldn’t see this mixtape or even the whole “Trilogy” starting with any other track. “High For This” can be taken in a few ways also, you could take it simply as Abel telling a girl “You want to be high for this” or you can take it how I take it: Abel is telling the listener “You don’t know what’s in store… you want to be high for this”. It’s such a fitting opening from the first line all the way to the end of the track. I love how the track builds and gets heavier and heavier, and of course, the production is amazingly atmospheric, and overall it’s a strong track.
What You Need:
The next track is where the blood really gets flowing in this mixtape. “What You Need” beautifully samples Aaliyah, and Abel provides some incredibly sexy lyrics. As popular music critic Anthony Fantano said, The Weeknd isn’t the strongest lyricist by any means, but he knows what he is good at. “What You Need” is the perfect follow up to “High For This”. “High For This” introduced the drugs, “What You Need” brings the inevitable sex into this party you’re about to experience. The hook isn’t bad, but the verses are where the quality really is. Abel singing lines like “I just want to take you there”, “I do everything he does times three” and “Got you on the floor, doing things you never thought you’d do” get me going EVERY time. Great track.
House Of Balloons/ Glass Table Girls:
While the first 2 songs got the blood flowing, “HOB/GTG” is where we LIFT OFF. The opening just feels like a quick surge of energy that takes us from the chill environment of “What You Need” and throws us head first into a wild, exhilarating party. This track kills me every time, I can’t listen to it without turning up. The first half is filled with this undeniable thumping groove, with heavy synth lines and just when you’re having fun with it, part two absolutely sucks you into weirder, trippier territory, reassuring you that you weren’t going to get a simple, danceable track. Not only is this beat change up done perfectly, but everything changes, which I like a lot. Abel’s tone gets deeper and raspier, he goes from singing to rapping, and the production feels like a totally different track. This track is an easy A+ and by far the best on here.
The Morning:
“The Morning” intro does absolutely feel like the morning after “HOB/GTG” with its sunshine-esque guitar opening. That guitar tone is just classic R&B soul. This song is good. The production brings new ideas to the table with the guitar work. I’m sorry but “Got the walls kicking like their six months pregnant” is just a stupid line along with the whole “These pxssy ass homies tryna hold on to their credit so I tell them use a debit” rant he goes on. I know I stated before that Abel wasn’t the strongest lyricist, and it shows here, but his lines usually aren’t terrible on the Trilogy album and he has shown he is capable of writing some good lyrics. These 2 lines are just conundrums. Not all of the lyrics are horrible though, much of it paints a nice imagery that fits the song, but the lyrics here could have been worked on a little more. This song is easily saved by the great hook, but it’s one of my least favorite tracks here, which sucks to say because this track has potential.
Wicked Games:
“Wicked Games” is next up. If I had to choose what one individual song summed up all of Trilogy, it would be this song. It’s got the heartbroken relatability and it’s got the drugs. The verses here slay and stay consistent, and the chorus is too good to miss. Not only is this one the best songs on the mixtape and one of my top The Weeknd tracks, as well as one of two songs which introduced me to Abel, but it’s an essential The Weeknd song that anyone who wants to get into him NEEDS to listen to first or at least second. In context with the mixtape, it fits perfectly in between “The Morning” and “The Party And The After Party”. “The Morning” seems more fun and optimistic and “TPATAP” gets very strange and almost disturbing. But “Wicked Games” bridges those gaps as a slower, more depressing type track. It documents Abel’s lack of confidence, his drug use and heartbreak in a way that’s not really all that revealing or anything, but it says enough about what this time in his life was like.
The Party & The Party After:
“TPATAP” is another two-part song, but it’s not at all like “HOB/GTG”. In terms of sound, this track feels a lot more like a chill type drug high at the start of a party, while “HOB/GTG” feels a lot more energetic and trippier, as the party is getting more and more packed and the people are getting much more involved in drug use. But, I’m going to say that the second half of “TPATAP” is probably the darkest part of this album by far. Like… Not even close. While “Wicked Games” doesn’t feel as revealing as people make it out to be, certain lines on “TPATAP” seem EXTREMELY revealing to me. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, I like that a lot and it’s absolutely fitting with the album. When he says “If she stops then I might get violent” and “Start drowning from my wrist”, it’s pretty intense stuff that sounds all cool and chill on the surface, but when you really acknowledge what he just said you’re like “Oh God he just said that”. Now, I take “Drowning from my wrists” as him saying he’s going to cut himself, but many believe it’s about injecting heroin. Not like it matters though, both are intense subjects he drops pretty nonchalantly. The production is great with the infectious guitar work and his singing is even better. But it’s one of my lower songs on the album.
Coming Down:
“Coming Down” is a nice and much-needed chill out after “TPATAP”. I like that it acknowledges that he tries to quit drugs but can’t. He acknowledges his drug use head-on in a kind of personal way that lacks on a lot of these tracks. Most of the songs here feel extremely drug-addled with the lyrics and production, but don’t feel as vulnerable and honest as this track. It makes the album more relatable and a little easier to follow for someone like me, who doesn’t live that lifestyle. It brings Abel more down to Earth. This album would absolutely not be the same without this song for those very reasons. And I love how “TPATAP” bleeds into the introduction of this song, which is something I wish more of these songs did, which he did with a lot of songs on Kissland my favorite project behind this one. It feels like a cohesive project overall, but I just wish it flowed as well as “TPATAP” does into “Coming Down”.
Loft Music:
Which brings me to my LEAST favorite track on the album… “Loft Music” kind of just comes out of nowhere. This track has potential just like “The Morning”, the drums are extremely punchy and clear sounding, and, the production’s decent, but the 3-minute outro to this song just overstays its welcome and seems so scatterbrained in comparison to the rest of the song. If the outro would have been cut down a bit and once again, if the lyrics were cleaned up, it could be better.
The Knowing:
Luckily, “The Knowing”, the closer for this mixtape, leaves the album on such a high note. It strips down the drug talk and gets really emotionally, relatable and personal about an obvious shattered relationship. It’s a powerful song. The production doesn’t fail to keep the electric, psychedelic, atmospheric edge that the album has, especially with the heavy as hell distorted background guitars, and Abel provides probably the strongest lyrics on the album in my eyes. I can just feel the emotion coming out of him and it hits me hard. I’m going to say this is one of the best songs on “HOB” without a single doubt. This is The Weeknd at his most vulnerable, defeated and depressed. Depression seems to be a driving force in his music, and it just seems like he took every ounce of pain he had in him and slam dunked it into one powerful, hard-hitting song.
Twenty Eight:
Which is a bonus track that was added with the release of “Trilogy”. I must add this song to the review just because this was the track that introduced me to Abel. This track was on ITunes free song of the day back in 2012 a few weeks before the release of Trilogy. I saw it and it was free so I thought, why not, and downloaded it. Within seconds of the instrumental starting I loved the track. Then Abel’s vocals hit in, one of his best vocal tracks still to this day. The song is not the best or the worst on this mixtape but it will always have a place in my heart for introducing me to all the other tracks, EPs, Mixtapes, & Albums by Abel Tesfaye.
