Those Rumors About A New Weeknd Album Are Bogus

Carl Williott | May 11, 2015 2:47 pm
The Weeknd Earns A 'Today Show' Spot
Watch The Weeknd perform "Earned It" on the morning show.

The Weeknd is an interesting artist to watch, because he’s basically operating with two careers simultaneously. On the one hand, he’s a veteran, having attracted a torrent of buzz in 2011 thanks to three critically acclaimed mixtapes and a shadowy persona. For the OG fans, this is the guy who has already endured his sophomore slump with 2013’s Kiss Land, despite the fact that it’s officially only his first album. Then there’s a whole other sect of fans that see him as a newcomer — that guy on the Drake song and the Ariana Grande song and the Sia song, that friend of Kanye’s who finally decided to break out on his own with a sultry 50 Shades Of Grey hit.

The early adopters of Abel Tesfaye probably can’t stand that pop-world version of him, but that second route has led to his biggest reach beyond the internet’s buzz bin. And it seems Abel is going to strike while the iron is hot, prepping a new single for next month, with whispers of a new album to follow later this summer.

Earlier this month, Republic Records EVP Charlie Walk tweeted that The Weeknd has a “crazy” new song coming in June (could it be this one?).

https://twitter.com/charliewalk/status/594830130851229696

Then today (May 11), both Stereogum and Hot New Hip-Hop reported that Republic Records confirmed a new album is dropping on August 28, citing this Revolt article. But the Revolt article makes no mention of an album release date. So we reached out to Republic, and the label told us the date is wrong and that “nothing is confirmed” regarding a new album. Then The Weeknd tweeted out the following:

Notice that neither Tesfaye nor his label flat-out denied the existence of a new album, so it would certainly appear something is in the works. As for when fans will hear it, and which ones it will satisfy, those details are murky enough that it actually brings to mind The Weeknd of old.

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