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Beauty Behind the Madness

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Untitled

Beauty Behind the Madness is the second studio album by Canadian recording artist The Weeknd. It was released on August 28, 2015, by XO and Republic Records.[6] The album features guest appearances from Labrinth, Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey, while the production on the album was handled by Illangelo, Mike Dean, Danny Boy Styles and Max Martin, among others.

The album was supported by four singles. "Often" was released on July 31, 2014 as the lead single. "The Hills" was released on May 27, 2015 as the second single (third single in the UK) and "Can't Feel My Face" was released on June 8, 2015 as the third single. "In the Night" was released as the fourth single on November 17, 2015. "The Hills" and "Can't Feel My Face" both reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Beauty Behind the Madness also includes "Earned It", which was released on December 23, 2014 as the lead single from the soundtrack to Fifty Shades of Grey.

Background

On September 10, 2013, The Weeknd released his debut album Kiss Land.[7] It was promoted by three singles; "Kiss Land", "Belong to the World", "Live For" featuring Drake, and the Weeknd's The Fall tour beginning during September 2013.[8][9] Kiss Land received generally positive reviews from music critics.[10] Kiss Land debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, selling 96,000 copies, just two thousand copies short of Keith Urban's Fuse, which took the number one spot on the week.[11]

In 2013, in an interview with MTV, following the release of his debut album, The Weeknd spoke of his compilation album Trilogy, as the first chapter of his life and [Kiss Land] as the second chapter. He described his first two releases, saying:

Trilogy was more of a claustrophobic body of work, before it was released I hadn't left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life in one setting, that's probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that's what my life felt like. It felt like one long song. Kiss Land is the story after Trilogy; it's pretty much the second chapter of my life. The narrative takes place after my first flight; it’s very foreign, very Asian-inspired. When people ask me 'Why Japan?' I simply tell them it's the furthest I've ever been from home. It really is a different planet.[12]

Since his debut album, The Weeknd has appeared on numerous soundtracks, including the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, contributing "Devil May Cry" and featuring on "Elastic Heart" by Sia, released as the second single from the soundtrack[13][14] and the song "Love Me Harder" was released as a duet between The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, and became a commercial success.[15]

On June 26, 2014, The Weeknd has announced that he will be headlining the King of the Fall tour, essentially a mini-tour across America in September and October 2014. ScHoolboy Q and Jhené Aiko were confirmed as support acts.[16] The announcement came on the day, after The Weeknd released his new song, "Often" on SoundCloud leading to speculation the tour will unveil more new material from him.[17] On December 23, 2014, he released "Earned It", the song was released as a single from the 2015's film Fifty Shades of Grey. The song has peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it continued through his success.

On July 5, 2015, Ed Sheeran revealed on Beats 1, that he had worked with The Weeknd on his forthcoming album. Sheeran also said; Kanye West would feature in a collaboration on the album.[18] On July 9, 2015, The Weeknd announced his second studio album would be titled Beauty Behind the Madness, and shared the album artwork on twitter.[19]

Singles

The album's lead single, "Often" was released on July 31, 2014. The song peaked at number 59 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 69 on the Canadian Hot 100.

The album's second single, "The Hills" was released on May 27, 2015. The song entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 20 for the chart dated June 13, 2015; it was the week's highest debut.[20] Its debut was overwhelmingly powered by first-week digital download sales of 109,000 copies and 5.2 million domestic streams, aided by the simultaneous premiere of its music video on the single's release date.[21] The following week, the single declined by one position but earned the largest gain in streams on the chart.[22] As of December 2015, "The Hills" had sold 2,323,531 copies in the country and has reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming The Weeknd's second number-one hit, and making him one of the few artists to replace themselves.[23]

The album's third single, "Can't Feel My Face" was released on June 8, 2015, following a performance of the song by The Weeknd at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on the same day.[24] The song debuted at number 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It produced first-week digital sales of 93,000 units and garnered additionally 4.2 million US streams and 38 million airplay audiences.[25] In its third week on the chart, the song reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it his third top 10 hit, and his second solo top 10 hit. Five weeks later, it reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, which became The Weeknd's first number-one hit on the chart; it returned to the top twice, becoming the sixth song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to do so, the first since 2011.[26] It debuted at number 27 in Australia on June 20,[27] before climbing to number 2 in July. As of December 2015, "Can't Feel My Face" has sold 2,102,438 copies in the country.[28]

"In the Night" was released as the album's fourth single in the United States on November 17, 2015, while it'll be released in the United Kingdom in 2016.[29]

The fifth single, "Acquainted", was released alongside "In the Night", as the next urban single. It impacted US urban contemporary radio on November 17, 2015.[30]

Release

On July 4, 2015, The Weeknd headlined FVDED in the Park in Surrey, BC, Canada. On July 9, The Weeknd continued to promote the album by headlining summer music festivals, including Lollapalooza in Chicago, the Hard Summer Music Festival in Pomona, CA, the Summer Set Music and Camping Festival in Somerset, WI, Philadelphia's Made in America Festival, Austin City Limits in Austin, and Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival.[31]

This followed the leak of three songs from the album in May 2015: "In the Night", "Can't Feel My Face", and a working version of "Acquainted" referred to as "Girls Born in the 90s" that was heavily reworked before release.[32]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The A.V. ClubB[33]
Chicago Tribune[34]
Entertainment WeeklyB[35]
HipHopDX[2]
NME7/10[36]
The Observer[37]
Pitchfork Media7.2/10[38]
Rolling Stone[39]
Spin7/10[40]

Upon release, Beauty Behind the Madness received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a generally favorable score of 74, based on 26 reviews.[41]

Accolades

Rolling Stone included the album in their list of favorite albums of the year, at fifth, saying "Tesfaye redefined what it means to be an R&B auteur with his breakthrough second LP. [...] It's just that kind of raw honesty that makes him such a revolutionary player."[42] NME listed the album at 19 on its list of best albums of the year.[43]

Beauty Behind the Madness won the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album in 2015, while currently being nominated for Album of the Year at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards and 'Outstanding Album' at the 47th annual NAACP Image Awards.

Commercial performance

On August 31, 2015, Billboard estimated that Beauty Behind the Madness would sell approximately 300,000 copies during the first week of its release in the United States.[44] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 412,000 equivalent album units; it sold 326,000 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting its streaming activity and track sales. Its number-one debut gave The Weeknd his first number-one album.[45] It remained atop the chart for the next two weeks and was the first album to spend three weeks at number one consecutively since Taylor Swift's 1989.[46][47] As of December 2015, Beauty Behind the Madness has sold over 767,000 copies in the United States.[48]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Real Life"
  • The Weeknd
  • DaHeela
  • Moccio
3:43
2."Losers" (featuring Labrinth)
4:41
3."Tell Your Friends"
5:34
4."Often"
  • The Weeknd
  • Ben Billions
  • DaHeela[a]
4:11
5."The Hills"
  • Tesfaye
  • Montagnese
  • Emmanuel Nickerson
  • Balshe
  • Mano 4 Treated Crew
  • Illangelo
4:04
6."Acquainted"
  • Tesfaye
  • Quenneville
  • Schofield
  • Montagnese
  • Diehl
5:48
7."Can't Feel My Face"
  • Martin
  • Payami
3:36
8."Shameless"
  • Tesfaye
  • Svensson
  • Kotecha
  • Payami
  • Balshe
  • Martin
  • Payami
  • Svensson
  • The Weeknd[a]
4:13
9."Earned It" (from Fifty Shades of Grey)
  • Tesfaye
  • Moccio
  • Quenneville
  • Balshe
  • Moccio
  • DaHeela
4:37
10."In the Night"
  • Tesfaye
  • Balshe
  • Payami
  • Kotecha
  • Svensson
  • Martin
  • Martin
  • Payami
  • The Weeknd[a]
3:55
11."As You Are"
  • Tesfaye
  • Balshe
  • Schofield
  • Quenneville
  • Montagnese
  • The Weeknd
  • Illangelo
  • DaHeela
  • Danny Boy Styles
5:40
12."Dark Times" (featuring Ed Sheeran)
  • Tesfaye
  • Quenneville
  • Ed Sheeran
Illangelo4:20
13."Prisoner" (featuring Lana Del Rey)
  • Illangelo
  • The Weeknd[a]
4:34
14."Angel"
  • Tesfaye
  • Moccio
  • Schofield
  • Diehl
  • Zaman
  • The Weeknd
  • Moccio
6:17
Total length:65:06
Notes
  • ^[a] signifies a co-producer
  • ^[b] signifies an additional producer
Sample credits
  • "Tell Your Friends" contains samples of "Can't Stop" performed by Theophilus London featuring Kanye West from the album Vibes and "Can't Stop Loving You" by Soul Dog from the album Movin' On.

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[49] 1
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[50] 7
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[51] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[52] 10
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[53] 1
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[54] 2
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[55] 2
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[56] 12
French Albums (SNEP)[57] 6
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[58] 7
Irish Albums (IRMA)[59] 2
Italian Albums (FIMI)[60] 21
South Korean Albums (Circle)[61] 60
South Korean International Albums (Circle)[62] 8
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[63] 2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[64] 1
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[65] 21
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[66] 7
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[67] 1
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[68] 4
UK Albums (OCC)[69] 1
UK R&B Albums (OCC)[70] 1
US Billboard 200[71] 1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[72] 1

Year-end charts

Chart (2015) Position
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[73] 46

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[74] Gold 35,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[75] Platinum 80,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[76] Gold 20,000^
Mexico (AMPROFON)[77] Gold 30,000^
Norway (IFPI Norway)[78] Gold 15,000*
Sweden (GLF)[79] Platinum 40,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[80] Gold 100,000*
United States (RIAA)  Gold 746,000[81]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region Date Format Label
Worldwide August 28, 2015

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b Dowling, Marcus (August 26, 2015). "The Weeknd – Beauty Behind The Madness". HipHopDX. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  3. ^ Damien Scott. "Review: The Weeknd's 'Beauty Behind the Madness' - Complex". Complex.
  4. ^ "Top 40/M Future Releases - Mainstream Hit Songs Being Released and Their Release Dates ..." All Access.
  5. ^ http://hiphop-n-more.com/2015/11/the-weeknd-next-single-acquainted-from-beauty-behind-the-madness/
  6. ^ Beauchemin, Molly (July 9, 2015). "The Weekend Announces New Album Beauty Behind the Madness". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  7. ^ Williott, Carl (July 22, 2013). "The Weeknd Unveils 'Kiss Land' Release Date & Cover Artwork". Idolator. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
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  13. ^ Hakimian, Rob (November 19, 2013). "Album Review: Various Artists – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
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  32. ^ http://genius.com/The-weeknd-girls-born-in-the-90s-lyrics
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  42. ^ "45 Best Albums of 2015 So Far". Rolling Stone. December 01, 2015. Retrieved December 01, 2015. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  43. ^ "NME'S Albums of the Year 2015". nme.com. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
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  79. ^ "The Weeknd - Beauty Behind the Madness" (in Swedish). Grammofon Leverantörernas Förening. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
  80. ^ "British album certifications – The Weeknd – Beauty Behind the Madness". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Beauty Behind the Madness in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  81. ^ Smith, Trevor (December 9, 2015). "Charts Don't Lie: December 9th". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
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