This hot new Siafu Sounds.com playlist includes music from new albums by: Antonian, Britney Spears, Broken Bells, Cancha Via Circuito, Edward Sharpe, John Hopkins & King Creosote, Panic! at the Disco, Dum Dum Girls, Harld Grosskopf, Harbors, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Kassidy, Ladytron, Lykke Li, The Vodoun Effect, Pharoahe Monch, Peter Bjorn and John, Raekwon, Snoop Dogg, Soundgarden, Toro Y Moi, The Crookes, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Saints, The Strokes, and Willie Nelson (with Norah Jones and Wynton Marsalis). Be sure to also check out the youtube playlist at the bottom of the page, which includes many other outstanding new tracks.
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Why ‘House of Balloons’ is free I can’t imagine because this is one of the better albums I have heard in years
OVERALL 91
PRODUCTION 97
VOCALS 91
INSTRUMENTALS 90
LYRICS 48
Reviewing an album I can’t make any money off of is an awful hard task for me to stomach, but ‘House of Balloons’ by The Weeknd is EXACTLY the sort of album we started Siafu Sounds to spread the word about. Why ‘House of Balloons’ is free I can’t imagine because this is one of the better albums I have heard in years and I’d easily shell out the price of 3 normal albums for purchase.
Absolutely stellar in every way, the standout amongst these great qualities is a dark nightmare of a dreamscape painted by the album tone. As dark as the tone remains, it simultaneously is unwaveringly smooth and slow with richly tuned singing layered throughout to fall within the production rather than on top of it. Oozing with sex appeal and trance inducing grooves, ‘House of Balloons’ would be great to bring to a party but it is more the sort of music you’d want to play at an orgy than a dance hall.
The production is superb and leaves no doubt that ‘The Weeknd’ are future production superstars. There is a disjointed polytonality to the always present harmonies that plays absolute havoc with the emotions of the listener, who frequently find themselves simultaneously manic and high. The lyrics are likewise bipolar, one moment bordering on past-suicidal levels of pain and the next bordering on comedic. The later evoke the sort of confident delivery of obscenities usually reserved for the likes of Tenacious D and Flight of the Conchords . . . Which doesn’t diminish the music as a joke but rather display The Weeknd’s ability to make the absurd seem absurdly cool, as each ‘let me motherfuckin’ love you’ type of line brings an evangelic nod of the head. I’m not too concerned about telling you to to check out The Weeknd right now, because these guys are going to be unavoidable. But do yourself a huge favor and get acquainted now. ‘House of Balloons’ is available for free download at http://the-weeknd.com/
