House Of Balloons / Glass Table Girl
I miss out on plenty of hyped albums—probably more so than I did before I started this thing, believe it or not. You know things are getting bad when one of my not-so-musically-inclined friends suggests a noisemaker that I completely overlooked.
The Weeknd, along with his three mixtapes released in quick succession, have been getting a lot of attention over the past few months. The first of those rapid-fire recordings, House of Balloons, is supposed to be the best of the three. However, keep in mind that pick is coming from a guy who has posted a link to Toto’s “Hold the Line” on my Facebook wall.
I must give Andy some credit, though; he’s got things right this time around. “House of Balloons” is a really cool record, with a sound unlike much that I’ve heard recently. There have been comparisons made to Michael Jackson, and while I don’t think that really does The Weeknd’s music justice, I see where they’re coming from. The dude indulges in plenty of soulful monologues on this record—singing in a really in-your-face manner about sex, love, drugs, and money. My favorite part of this album is not the oft-cringe-worthy rhymes, though. No, I’m willing to overlook a lot of pretty bad lyrics because the dynamic nature of everything going on the background is pretty sweet. The beats are always changing, with plenty of dreamy synthy things going on, and some really cool vocal alterations.
It’s a unique sound — one that’s pretty hard to describe — as you can see from that travesty of a paragraph above. Either way, I’ll definitely be looking into what else this guy has to offer. It’s cool stuff.
Swole Ear 
My personal jury is still out on Herr Weeknd. Maybe it’s a Montreal-Toronto thing. I was amused, however, by the snippet of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Happy House” in the song you linked to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeBMHnJqAvM .
I find it all mildly entertaining, but where is the missing “e”? it bothers me.