#365songs (54 / 365)

I listened to The Weeknd's so-called "Trilogy" back when it was three free "mixtapes" and The Weeknd was not a world-conquering Super-Bowl-halftime-playing pop sensation. On at least my first attempt I bounced off House of Balloons (the first of the trilogy) pretty hard because it seemed kind of just like uncomplicated sleazy lothario music. "House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls" was probably the track that cracked it open for me, because while it's possible to read the first two tracks as straight-faced, this one takes a turn in the second half into something queasy and uncomfortable and kind of adds some color to the whole mixtape. No pun intended.

The somewhat more emotionally complex stuff that underlies House of Balloons's hedonism gets more explicit from here — see the uncharacteristically blunt admission "I need confidence in myself" in its lead single "Wicked Games" — and the Trilogy eventually goes some pretty fucked up and desolate places, but I probably never would have heard any of that if this track hadn't made me caught my attention and gotten me to give House of Balloons a closer listen.

I haven't listened to anything The Weeknd has released after the last of the Trilogy's original mixtapes Echoes of Silence because to all appearances he's mostly been continuing and maybe refining its shtick while getting more and more popular. But I think these three mixtapes are kind of perfect for what they are, enough that I don't really feel the need for any more Weeknd in my life.