Starboy fails to live up to hefty expectations

Over the last two years, alternative R&B artist The Weeknd has become one of the most popular artists today due to his great vocals and edgy take on R&B music. His dark and somber tone give a breath of fresh air into a genre that has quickly lost the appeal it once had.

The Weeknd’s third studio album Starboy, released Nov. 25, had a lot of hype and expectations coming off of his critically acclaimed 2015 album Beauty Behind the Madness, which earned him two Grammy’s and an Academy Award nomination.

The album drop for Starboy was announced in September and was coupled with the release of the single also entitled “Starboy.” The anticipation for the album grew when it was revealed that The Weeknd collaborated with the famous electronic music duo Daft Punk.

The 18-track album also includes features and collaborations from Future, Kendrick Lamar and Lana Del Rey. Given this powerhouse line-up this album should be a runaway success, but it is not. In fact, it is the total opposite.

Kendrick’s feature on “Sidewalks” and Daft Punk’s feature on the song “Starboy” were the only good features from the whole album. This is disappointing considering that Future already made a hit with The Weeknd. Daft Punk has two features in the closing track “I Feel it Coming,” and the opening title track. “Starboy” provides a great start to the album and perfectly meshes the two unique stylings of Daft Punk and The Weeknd, but “I Feel it Coming” felt like another typical R&B song rather than a collaboration between two great artists.

The Weeknd’s solo tracks on this album were some of its strongest parts, but also the weakest. The singles that stand out on the album are the best on the album, but the rest of the singles are the worst on the album. “False Alarm” and “Ordinary Life” highlight the album and have The Weeknd utilizing his typical edgy stories and fresh sound. “Party Monster” is the best song from the whole album — a blend of hip-hop music with R&B lyrics and vocals so good that most people will put the song on repeat. “Six Feet Under” is another song that blends hip-hop and R&B in a way that works, not as well as Party Monster, but enough that it sticks out, and with Future lending vocals, offering one of the few highlights of the album.

As for the rest of the tracks . . . meh. The rest of the album suffers from a lack of consistency and a ton of stereotypical music. The rest of the tracks feature dime-a-dozen R&B music and themes. It reaches a point where it is actually difficult to differentiate two of the album’s songs. “Rockin’” and “Secrets,” have such small differences between their beats and vocals that if the lyrics are removed from the track, it is a challenge to tell the two songs apart. The principle of that is the problem for the album in general.

Beauty Behind the Madness achieved the success it did because it is a genuine fresh take on R&B music. The album is simultaneously inviting to all ages while keeping a dark tone throughout the album. The beats are different; the stories are different.

The fact that The Weeknd made a No. 1 R&B song about doing drugs with “Can’t Feel my Face” (2015) shows how different he is as an artist and the talent he actually has. With his latest effort, he has followed up a Grammy-worthy album with an album that is filled with disappointing features and typical R&B songs. Starboy somehow completely loses the vibe and sound he had with Beauty Behind the Madness. In turn, he loses much of what made him such a well-received and unique artist in the first place.

With Starboy, the expectation was an album worthy to follow Beauty Behind the Madness. Instead, the result is an album filled with cliche songs, let-down features and very few high points. The album Starboy disappoints with a 5.5/10.