The Weeknd is hands down the best new artist of 2011, period. It's been over a week since the release of his third project of the year entitled "Echoes of Silence." He starts off by having the nuts to cover Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana. He does this flawlessly...not flawlessly as in he sounds just like MJ, but flawlessly as how he completely owns the song and makes it his own. It's great and sets the tempo for the project. Echoes sounds like it picked up where "House of Balloons" left off. Thing is, "Thursday" is in between the two. I don't know his reasoning but maybe Thursday was suppose to move off course on purpose. I don't know, but Echoes of Silence is a strong project.
My stand out tracks are "Same Old Song" and "Next."
I think those two songs sum up the theme of the mixtape.
The theme being women doubting the talents of Young Abel and his "I told you I can do this" comebacks. I've come to the realization that women don't listen to the words of Abel, they're addicted to his mesmerizing sound. They think it's sweet, but the fact that he's singing the words he's saying is what makes me like it so much. He handles them so rough, but yet they love it. Dope.
I personally feel that Echoes did what Thursday didn't do. It was cohesive more like House of Balloons was. Even though Thursday wasn't weak, Echoes just gave Abel the stamp that he's an artist that you have to reckon with. Search the internet and give it a listen.
