It was slowly building for years from Metric and Scott Pilgrim to Drake and Broken Social Scene; but, it was the release of The Weeknd’s album House of Balloons that cemented Toronto as the current coolest city in the world. Does House of Balloons live up to the hype? I have listened to around 25 times the last months and the unequivocal answer is yes. One of the underrated aspects of recording a great album is having a great opening to the first song. It is like having a perfect thesis statement that prepares everyone for the rest of the album. The best example of this is Guns N Roses’s Appetite For Destruction which opens with Slash’s kick ass guitar riff, Axl whispering “oh my god”in the background,  the wail of a police siren in the background, Axl yelling “cha”, and culminates in the iconic opening line of “Welcome to the Jungle-We got fun and Games.” While The Weeknd and GNR are two completely different type of bands and I am not saying House of Balloons will go on to be an album that is emblematic of its time the way Appetite For Destruction did; however, the opening of House of Balloons is a perfect thesis statement for this album. On House of Balloons the first thing we hear on the opening track High ForThis are some weird noises that soundlike they may be taken from the score of Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey, then we get the first distant sounding drum sounds that seem to be coming from another room right before we hear the lyrical thesis for the album of “You don’t know what’s in store-but you know what you’re here for.” That line kind of encapsulates the entire experience of being young, single, and going out. Though out the rest of the song we get the narrator’s rap (I am using the word rap in the traditional sense and not the musical sense) to the girl trying to get her in bed: “hold tight-love is right-we don’t need no protection-come alone-we don’t need not attention-open your hand-take a glass-don’t be scared-I am right here-even tho-you don’t roll-trust me girl-you want to be high for this” They rest of the album goes along with those general themes of sex, drugs, and love in that order. On the second track What You Need, we again get a great opening refrain of an unknown singer saying “didn’t I hold you close?” which leads into the rest of the song. At times on the song Abel Tesfaye’s vocals sound like yearning but they also almost have a menacing quality. When you sings “he’s what you want, he’s what you want, I am what you need” you are not sure if he is pleading to his love to come back or threatening to kidnap her. The rest of the album never lets go of the level of musical and lyrically complexity. A song like Wicked Games could have just been a good standard RNB songs about ditching your girl for the temptation of a super hot girl; however, lyrically and musically The Weeknd always go with an extra layer of psychological depth. He asks the super hot girl to “bring your body baby-and I could bring you fame” which sounds similar to what you might here in a standard RNB song with the star trying to use his fame to get laid. What makes a track like “Wicked Games” different is that later he confesses that he wants her because he needs confidence in himself and begs her to say that she loves him even if she does not mean it and even if it is only for the night. That type of earnestness and insecurity is closer to something you might here in a Smiths lyric than a Ne-Yo lyric. A song like “Loft Music” first few minutes sound like they could be a solid club song, but the last 2 and half minutes of the song is mostly just a dream like soundscape with vocal sounds but no real lyrics. Musically and lyrically, The Weeknd along with Frank Ocean have broken out from recent stagnant RNB formulas to make some of the best music of the year. Overall album grade: A 

You can download House of Balloons for free here: http://the-weeknd.com/#