Album Review: After Hours - The Weeknd

After delivering months of an aesthetically consistent and enticing rollout, including multiple hit singles, The Weeknd has finally released his long-anticipated album After Hours. Similarities can be drawn from this project to Abel’s previous offerings, but there is a narrative focus and sense of sonic development which indicates The Weeknd’s progression as an artist, and more prominently, as a man.

After the release of the lead single “Heartless”, I was unsure which direction this project would be taking. While it’s an undeniably catchy track, it lacks complexity and depth as Abel once again shows his emotionless and cold side. This is territory which has been explored abundantly through Tesfaye’s discography. “Blinding Lights” is a groovy, 80’s-inspired, radio-friendly hit, but outside of the context of the album’s narrative, there’s no deeper messaging being delivered. “After Hours” had fans of Abel’s earliest work excited, as its minimal and revealing tone reflected that of Trilogy or Kissland. Finally, the SNL performance of “Scared To Live” proved that this project would be emotionally reflective just a week before the project’s release. Luckily, it didn’t disappoint.

This may be favorite project of Abel’s yet. It has something to offer for fans of each of his eras, and it has high replay-ability. From “In Your Eyes” and “Faith” to “Snowchild” and “Escape From LA”, this project is radio-friendly, hard-hitting, and poignant simultaneously. It is often the case that albums with heavy aesthetic variation are scattered and lack sonic consistency, which this project successfully avoids. The track listing reflects a well-thought-out narrative which tells a heartbreaking story - something Abel has become very experienced with.

The Weeknd’s popularity and reach have exploded over the years, as he has become one of the biggest stars in the world. This isn’t too detrimental as long as he doesn’t commit all of his creativity to pumping out radio-friendly tracks. Looking at you, Post Malone. After Hours, in almost every regard, lived up to my expectations and hopes. Some of the songs featured here aren’t as complete as I think they could be, but overall, most of the tracks on this album are fantastic. Give this is a listen. And please go wash your hands.

Good tracks: “Alone Again”, “Scared To Live”, “Snowchild”, “Escape From LA”, “Heartless”, “Faith”, “Blinding Lights”, “In Your Eyes”, , “After Hours”

SCORE: 8/10

The NBA Season Has Been Suspended

Last night was quite eventful. Within the span of only an hour, the United States banned travel from Europe for the next thirty days, Tom Hanks confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19, and the NBA suspended its season indefinitely due to Utah Jazz member Rudy Gobert contracting the virus. Since then, it has been confirmed that Gobert’s teammate Donovan Mitchell has come down with the virus as well, which is likely to be the beginning of many more reports of prominent players confirming cases.

Gobert is being blamed online for spreading the virus due to his recent carefree and reckless behavior. At the end of a recent press conference, Gobert seemingly mocked those who have taken precautions in regards to COVID-19, intentionally touching every microphone at the podium. The video of this incident is extremely cringe-inducing now, knowing that he was likely asymptomatically carrying the virus at the time of the video. The former defensive player of the year just shut down the whole league.

With the playoffs quickly approaching, it’s unclear as to how the league is going to handle the rest of the season. This is likely going to end up being long-lasting and have an impact on most of our lives over the next few months, so no one is sure as to what happens next. Not only are thousands of people currently suffering from the virus, but tens of millions of dollars are going to be lost from the NBA canceling the foreseeable games, a trend already becoming clear just from looking at the stock market recently.

These are scary times. I’ve been trying to keep my head up and maintain a positive attitude as much as possible, but it seems that this pandemic is truly going to be damaging globally. I’ll likely be posting more about COVID-19 and related events as they come up short. In the mean time, wash your hands and try not to get too down about the world. Thanks for reading.

Opinion: What Happens Next in the Democratic Primary

I’m sure you’re very well aware by now that former Vice President Joe Biden over-performed massively on Super Tuesday. After being expected to only win five or six contests at the most, Biden was able to win eleven, establishing himself as the clear frontrunner moving forward. This surprise showing led to underperformance from the rest of field, particularly from Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg. Their results were so dismal that in the past two days, both of these candidates have dropped out from the race. It’s now a two-man fight between Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Tulsi Gabbard.

All jokes aside: We’re reaching the final and most important stages of the Democratic primary. In my last opinion post, I explained the DNC’s rules for becoming the party’s nominee. Basically, the candidate who does so will either secure 1,991 nominations from primaries, or will be pushed over that number by superdelegates at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin over the summer. The odds are most likely that no candidate will win outright, but if one were to do so, it would be Joe Biden.

Endorsements from Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and Michael Bloomberg indicate a clear moderate coalition behind Biden as the establishment figurehead candidate to beat, which will be difficult to do as he’s polling so well in the states moving forward such as Florida, Ohio, and Illinois. The world is waiting with baited-breath to see who Elizabeth Warren will endorse, if anyone. If she endorses Biden, the race is over. If she endorses Sanders, the race is likely still over, but things might get end slightly more interestingly.

The March 15th debate between Biden and Sanders is going to be very telling, and hopefully more substantive and policy-focused than the ones which came before it. I expect this race to get uglier before it ends, unfortunately, as both of the candidates left are looking for knockout punches. If I had to make predictions moving forward, they would be: Elizabeth Warren endorses Joe Biden, Biden dominates the rest of the primaries, and becomes the party’s nominee with a large plurality at the Convention over the summer. What do you think will happen next? Thanks for reading.

Opinion: How Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar Dropping Out Will Impact Super Tuesday

The first four Democratic Primary contests were all relatively straightforward. After South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s surprising and narrow victory at the disastrous Iowa caucus kickoff, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders went on to dominate both the New Hampshire Primary and Nevada Caucus, cementing his place as the frontrunner early-on and moving forward. Then came the atrocity of a debate days before South Carolina’s primary, where Joe Biden ended up outperforming the polls and winning handily, reestablishing himself as a worthy contender moving forward in the race. I, along with most, didn’t think much would change in the few days between Saturday’s primary and the upcoming Super Tuesday, but low and behold, a wrench has been thrown into the race with the sudden departure of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar from the race.

The Democratic National Committee has rules which establish that each candidate needs to surpass a viability threshold of fifteen percent support in order to begin accumulating pledged delegates. If a candidate is able to secure a majority of the delegates (1991 of them) before the Democratic National Convention, then that candidate automatically becomes the party’s nominee for the General Election. If not, then there is what is called a contested convention, and DNC officials known as Superdelegates vote and effectively select the nominee they want to choose, regardless of whether there is a candidate with more popular votes or a plurality of delegates at that point. Pretty complicated, but those are the primary rules in a nutshell.

Ideologically similar candidates split support from one another, and a crowded field of likeminded candidates often sabotages each candidate involved. In this particular primary, the moderate / establishment candidates had been pulling support from one another, and that trend looked likely to continue into Super Tuesday’s many contests. This led to Bernie Sanders becoming a clear frontrunner, as his only progressive competition up until this point had been Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. By dropping out of the race and endorsing Joe Biden within just days of Super Tuesday, moderate candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar are signaling to the electorate that the establishment is rallying all of their support behind Joe Biden for the nomination in an attempt to prevent Bernie Sanders from securing the highly-coveted majority of earned delegates. The Democratic primary has been known for pulling these sorts of tricks before… see 2016.

At this point I really only see two possible outcomes for this Democratic Primary. The first is that the young demographic shows up on Super Tuesday unlike they did in South Carolina, and that Bernie Sanders secures a nomination from a majority of delegates in the coming months. The chances of this happening are slimmer now that support will be consolidated behind Joe Biden. The second outcome is that the young vote will stay home as they are infamously known for, and that Joe Biden will be handed the nomination at a contested convention over the summer. We will likely know which of these two paths we are headed down after tomorrow’s votes, and there is no way to known for sure what is going to happen.

Politics are increasingly unpredictable in today’s climate. The electorate doesn’t get to know what happens behind closed doors, but it’s certainly easy to connect the dots and infer about connections between events and candidates. Either the Democratic Party will continue to implode over the coming days and months, or they will rally behind a popular candidate capable of defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Tomorrow will be very telling, and I can’t wait to see what happens. We shall see. Things certainly just got a lot more interesting. Thanks for reading.

Best Foot Forward: A Sneaker Series (Part 9)

I’m delighted to be bringing back one of my favorite blog series for another installment today. Back in November, I posted what was, at the time, the last of my Best Foot Forward series. Luckily since then, I’ve been able to pick up a couple of long-awaited pairs which I will be showcasing in this post. I’m really lucky to have these two pairs. Let’s get into it.

Pair 1 (Left): Air Jordan 11 Retro “Bred”

By the time of the Chicago Bulls 1995-96 season, Michael Jordan was already a 3-time NBA champion and widely regarded as one of the best players of all-time. That year, MJ led the Bulls to a 72-10 record and an NBA title, all while wearing the Tinker Hatfield-crafted Air Jordan 11 silhouette, which is Jordan’s own favorite pair from his signature line. The black and red colorway featured here is one of the most iconic sneakers around, and I’m lucky to finally have these in my collection.

Pair 2: (Right): Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 “Black Non-Reflective”

After releasing an abundance of similarly-hued 350 V2 silhouettes, Kanye West finally blessed those of us who had been waiting for another black Yeezy to release. If you throw black and red on any shoe, I’m automatically much more likely to try to get my hands on it. This pair is sleek and stealthy but still features loud design elements like the 3M lace accents and white boost on the bottom of the outsole. This may be one of my personal favorite shoes that Kanye has ever released, and I’m going to be holding onto these for a long time.

Straight to the point. Short and sweet. I only had two new pairs to feature here opposed to the usual four, but I think these two amazing pairs will suffice. Thanks for reading, and hopefully I will be back with Part 10 of this series soon!