Trilogy is the greatest music of all time. So glad I've been on it since day one. The Weeknd in concert for Kiss Land was life changing. Starboy concert was great too
This is why Trilogy has been,is and always will be Abel’s best album. His crazy lifestyle that probably not even himself could return back into,all of the agony,pain,depression is so breathtakingly condensed. Hands down, one of the best mixtape series,and compilation albums of all time.
We all DESPERATELY need you to do this kind of video essay for all of his albums. ESPECIALLY After Hours, Dawn FM, and his final release as the Weeknd later this year
It seriously baffles me how a 19-21 year olds mind came up with something so dark, sinister and revolutionary like this. Like it intrigues me how at the time he could’ve gone the route on the generic rnb with the Chris browns and ushers as it was still the early 2010’s and the sound at the time was very pop chart centred and it was the route to go. I have no doubt in my mind he would of still been big given his angelic voice. But the fact he decided to complete go down this pathway is honestly something that needs a full documentary on how this trilogy was created from the weeknd himself as well as the 2 other mastermind producers behind this artwork. XOTWOD.
Something I feel like people don't get is that XO/The Host and Initiation are literally the same song told completely differently. Something House of Balloons and Echoes of Silence both understand very well is that even a simple drugged up house party can sound like a horror scene depending on how you tell it. Literally half of HOB and Thursday's songs are referenced in some capacity in Initiation, and if you pay a bit more attention you find that Abel's basically just saying the same shit that happened in XO/The Host, but darker. There is no new party, there was no gangbanging, it's just Abel and this girl, just like it was in XO/The Host, because it's the same events. "meet my boys" is a metaphor for drugs. Initiation is just Abel losing his fucking mind in one twisted, fucked up night that he almost died from all the drugs and sorrow he was in. Who knows if the party was actually as horrifying as Initiation makes it out to be, it very well could be. It's the same as House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls, he describes the same party to two different people, a girl and then her boyfriend.
*The chaos, despair and arrogance splattered throughout Echoes Of Silence is so intense and nightmarish that I just can’t help but attach my earlier youth to it. Initiation is what pulled me into The Weeknd’s music (coincidentally hearing it at a dorm party) and i’ve been a listener ever since.*
this was SUCH a rich analysis of the trilogy!! i truly don’t think i’ve seen anyone delve this deep with both the lyricism and instrumentation. i love trilogy so much. i’ve grown up with it, and every time i study it i walk away with another analysis. yours has not only given me a better insight to this project, but has given me much to think about in terms of my own. thanks for doing what you do and just know we appreciate you!!
I also think that the theory that Valerie killed herself on Thursday is not truth. Almost everyone thinks she actually killed herself but I don’t think it was like that. Valerie shot The Weeknd. The shot u hear at the beginning of the birds pt.2 is actually her shooting The Weeknd on the back. Thats why he says “now my back hurts” and that she lost control and that she was pleading.. Valerie shot The Weeknd on the back after she begged him to stay and reconsider her ,and because she didn’t get what she wanted after all she did for him and literally sacrificing everything, Valerie lost control and shot him on the back because he wasn’t willing to make her his only partner and love her or to stay with her after all the pain he made her go through and all she did for him. That’s why in gone he’s talking that he’s gone out of her life. Valerie isn’t dead On heaven or Las Vegas, he says “I’m paying for all my fallen sins” referring to al the shit he has done to girls and specially Valerie. But in some way , the fact that he made Valerie go insane over him,boosted his ego “I say I am god” he feels like his a god because he now knows he can make people go insane over him and do everything just to serve him and get what he wants. And on the last song of the mixtape that is called “Valerie”. The Weeknd is singing about that he regrets doing Valerie dirty. On the first line of the songs he says “it comes a time on a man’s life, where he must take responsibility for the choices he has made” referring he has to take the consequences of Valerie shooting him for hurting and using her. He regrets everything he did to Valerie and starts to believe that he might have actually loved her, and that he fucked up. But there’s no turning back. “cause I love you, and I need you, I only want you” he says. Also saying “Oh Valerie I know you can see through me , I know you can see through my lies” even tho she knew his true self she decided to stay with him. “Why pretend to trust in me? I don't know why you try to trust in me, baby but I think I might know” she pretended to trust in him to not get so hurt by his actual self ,she basically gaslighted herself into thinking he was not bad and he was the one for her to stay with him no Matter what he did to her, all because she was empty and The Weeknd made her feel complete. “You rather this than be alone” The Weeknd wants Valerie back and thinks of a way of manipulating her again to get her back. Even though it’s too late. That she would rather comeback to him than stay alone because all her life is fucked up and she doesn’t want to be alone ,doesn’t know how to be alone or that she needs him to feel complete and not empty at all. And on Echoes of Silence in “Montreal” he says “you could have been that lonely star if we just went on” seeking for a replacement for Valerie after he fucked up, because as you said all The Weeknd has been always seeking on Trilogy is love. He realized that Valerie could have actually give him what he has always wanted from the beginning “love”. But he fucked up and there’s no turning back. Now he’s looking for a replacement for her. To not live with the pain that he actually might have lost what he has always wanted. At the end Valerie Isn’t dead at all. Maybe that’s what Abel wanted to make us to believe , but if you look up at the lyrics and analyze everything, Valerie actually never killed herself.
Im so happy you combined these into 1 I been watching these types of videos while creating recently and have gotten so much inspiration from it. Thank you Jackson, keep making these amazing videos. The weeknd sad
THANK YOU for your support and for loving the music, my dear friend! I would love to hear about what you've been creating. Please send me an email, or if you joined the newsletter I believe there is a place to message me!
been listening to trilogy a lot recently i really love the story telling that he’s able to tell in these songs this is my favorite weeknd project/projects because it’s relatable and real
Such a great analysis which I say as a listener of Abel's music since late 2011. I love that you also felt like Abel's music made you feel like less of an outcast or like there was something wrong with you, I feel the same way with Abel's music! I'm so proud of all Abel's accomplished ❤️ I remember when I went to Abel's 2013 Kiss Land concert, I looked at my then-boyfriend and told him that, "The Weeknd will be one of the biggest artists in the world" and I'm so grateful to have seen that happen. Abel deserves it & his fans/XO deserve Abel's music to help them get through our traumas. Abel's music is unironically therapy for millions of us, which I still feel to this day 13 years later! 💚 XOTWOD
no matter how many times I listen to this mixtape I'm always astonished at how amazing his first few projects truly were. so much emotion, intelligence, creativity, and talent went into this and he was just an emerging r&b artist at the time with no name sure he had a song with drake but none the less this is a piece that will sustain longer then most repetitive music we hear now, this was a movie an embodiment of human desires and pain. great analysis on his work, the overall feeling each listener gets cannot be put into words.
Ima keep showing up and showing you support you aint read my last comment on your last video but i hope you do cuz nothing i said came from hate or negativity
You do such an amazing job this is my 4th video I've watched from you. You make absolute masterpieces and help me see more into albums I have already grown a true love for. Thank you for all you do.
2nd Trilogy Theory 💡 If we take Kiss Land (tears in the rain leading into) Beauty Behind the Madness (begins with Real Life and ends with Angel leading into ) My Dear Melancholy (which begins with Call Out My Name) Is that not a 2nd Trilogy story-wise? 🤔 He said Starboy had no story and was a collection of random hits. Note: I'm only skipping Starboy because i think Abel said in an interview Starboy as an album wasn't a story but a compilation of hit songs, i think. Not directly quoting him. I think he said that. So we're actually on the 3rd Trilogy? 💡
Thank you for asking this question! AND for your encouragement. It means so much. This video is a compilation of all 3 of my trilogy videos, EXCEPT: I completely remastered the House of Balloons video with a new and improved Script/video structure, with of course my newer editing style I've used recently.
I still don't see how these women are "victims" and yet willing participants at the same time. Them being aware of how the weeknd is, and trust that most women are fully aware of the type of men they're dealing with, and yet still letting the weeknd use, well what does that say about these women? These same women will have nice dudes willing to do anything for them and they're in the friendzone. So, I don't feel sorry for these chicks, they're in these streets.
Thank you for your analysis of Abel's music I appreciate because you are not judjing like other christians are about music wich is not about God For me, there are surrealistic vibes in his artistic work A mix of Salvador Dali and Geiger He feeds his soul with strange beauty and things that are not usual It's alchemia : taking all things who happens in order to transcend it Even in darkness there is still a kind of light
This is a beautifully and well explained analysis on one of the best trilogy ever created. You gave me so many insights and different perspectives on things that I never noticed… really interesting and inspiring. Bravo👏👏🫶
