The Weeknd “After Hours (Live at SoFi Stadium)” Album Review

After Hours (Live At SoFi Stadium)

The Weeknd

• Genre: R&B/Soul
• Date: 03 Mar, 2023
• Content: explicit
• Region: NGA
• Track(s): 31
• ℗ 2023 The Weeknd XO, Inc., marketed by Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

Now is your chance to catch up on The Weeknd’s “After Hours Til Dawn Tour” if you missed it. Live at SoFi Stadium, a 31-track collection documenting the singer’s two-night run at the Los Angeles venue in November 2022, was released on Friday (March 3). The career-overview track list includes some of Abel’s most well-known hits, as one might anticipate. The Weeknd and Mike Dean co-executive produced the set, which is a companion to his most recent HBO special, Live at SoFi Stadium.

Live Album Cover Art

The Weeknd has always had a thing for masks, as he even rocks them in his intriguing music videos. So, tapping inspiration from one of his fave personal belongings, Abel uses a smooth, glistening silver-coated mask emerging or falling into a dark rectangular opening. How the light interacts with the image makes you view the mask in two lights, first making it seem like it is slowly melting from one side, and also as though it was slowly making its entrance from the dark opening while being slowly revealed by the light. It’s tricky and beautiful. The Weeknd and his ingenuity.

Tracks and Features

The live album begins with loud cheering from concertgoers followed by sonic pop instrumentals that effortlessly bleed into the next song, “Alone Again (Live),” where he admits that he is a new person who is suppressing who he was and spending time and blowing cash in a strip club with other lonely souls. He does just one verse, and the instrumentals come in again to serve as a bridge to the next song, “Gasoline (Live).” The Weeknd paints his existence as pretty much meaningless. However, the one thing he still needs, like oxygen, is his estranged lover because she is his life wire—an anthem for folks going through an existential crisis. The upbeat tempo of the song helped make it less dreary.

While the Los Angeles crowd screamed wildly, Abel raised the atmosphere’s energy as he slid into “Sacrifice (Live),” the melodic tune that takes putting oneself first to new heights. The Weeknd sings about a situation with his lover where he cannot be tied down by a love affair when he has his whole career ahead of him. Then, interacting with the crowd, he enters another live rendition of yet another track off his latest Dawn FM release, “How Do I Make You Love Me (Live),” which did not last long before he made his way into the song that blew him up, “Can’t Feel My Face (Live).”

What is pretty applaudable is the sound quality of the live production and how the loving crowd of fans gets in sync with every new song that comes on. Then he goes back into his old catalog to pull out a few nostalgic classics, starting with the performance of “The Hills (Live),” taken from his 2015 album, “Beauty Behind The Madness.” Maintaining that energy, he performed a lineup of older songs that include “Often (Live),” “Crew Love (Live),” the iconic “Starboy (Live),” “Heartless (Live),” from the 2015 “Starboy” album. Something else worth commendation is the seamless set list containing a handful of his best career hits.

The crowd went crazy when, during his performance of “Low Life (Live),” he mentioned he had sold out the SoFi Stadium thrice! Thrice! An insane feat for a black male pop artist. And from going back to one of his first projects to perform, “Kiss Land (Live),” he hits it off with “Party Monster (Live),” and concertgoers rave as he concludes and cascades into “Faith (Live).” Then, he returns to Dawn FM to perform “Out of Time (Live)” to the loud cheering of the massive audience. He concludes with a track off the same album, “Less Than Zero (Live),” which leads him to the final song on the set list, “Blinding Lights (Live),” his monster smash from the After Hours album. Excited after a successful show, The Weeknd thanks the fans and shouts at intervals as trippy pop instrumentals and screams from the crowd fuse to end the live compilation album beautifully.

Tracklist

NO	TITLE	TIME
1	Intro	1:35
2	Alone Again	2:47
3	Gasoline	3:15
4	Sacrifice	4:23
5	How Do I Make You Love Me?	3:29
6	Can’t Feel My Face	3:03
7	Take My Breath	3:55
8	Hurricane	2:07
9	The Hills	3:05
10	Often	2:28
11	Crew Love	1:53
12	Starboy	4:05
13	Heartless	2:04
14	Low Life	1:47
15	Or Nah Ft. & Ty Dolla $ign	1:41
16	Kiss Land	1:50
17	Party Monster	3:09
18	Faith	3:05
19	After Hours	4:27
20	Out of Time	3:20
21	I Feel It Coming	3:54
22	Die For You	3:13
23	Is There Someone Else?	3:57
24	I Was Never There	2:17
25	Wicked Games	2:23
26	Call Out My Name	4:02
27	The Morning	3:19
28	Save Your Tears	2:58
29	Less Than Zero	4:04
30	Blinding Lights	4:13
31	Outro	3:19

Live Album Theme

A tribute to how enthralling the artistry of The Weeknd is and how many incredible hits he has under his belt. This also highlights the legendary status of Abel Tesfaye’s stage presence.

Production Credits

Ben Billions, Cirkut, Daft Punk, DaHeala, Doc McKinney, Dre Moon, Illangelo, Kevin Parker, Mano, Matt Cohn, Max Martin, Metro Boomin, MIKE DEAN, Mike Free, Mustard, Notinbed, Oneohtrix Point Never, Oscar Holter, Prince 85, Ricky Reed, Silkky Johnson & The Weeknd produced tracks on the live album.

Stream

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