Old Man Weeknd Wants You To Tune Into New Album Dawn FM This Week

Any time The Weeknd dropped "Blinding Lights" — recently named Billboard's No. 1 Hot 100 song of all time — way back in 2019, the world was a much different place. The album that followed, After Hours, was released in March 2020, right around the time the coronavirus pandemic brought up worldwide lockdowns. Since then, it feels like we've all aged approximately 70 years. The Weeknd likely agrees.


That's one reading of the cover art for his next album, titled Dawn FM, that features the artist caked in old-man makeup (liver spots and all) and wisened long gray hair as well as a gray beard. As he reported earlier this week, Dawn FM will drop on Friday (January 7).


The Weeknd has spent the past few years playing with his own image, distorting his own features into a "Instagram face" look for the "Save Your Tears" video and appearing routinely in his other music videos and on TV appearances wrapped in bloody bandages. This latest foray into facial modification fits right in.


One notable place he appeared looking like himself was 2021's Super Bowl LV halftime show, which proves that the artist place on Earth Abel Tasfaye is with little effort one of the primary stars on the planet and so totally capable of pulling off the year's first near-surprise album release.


Based on a trailer he released in conjunction with the album announcement, Dawn FM is "a new sonic universe from the mind of The Weeknd" and features a staggering and unusual list of visitors. Tyler, the Creator, Lil Wayne, and electronic talent Oneohtrix Point Never are all named, as is music legend Quincy Jones and Tesfaye's fellow Canadian Jim Carrey, of all people.


A voiceover from the fictional radio station of the title closes out the trailer with an ominous and vaguely cultish message: "You've been in the dark for way also long. It is about time to walk into the light and accept your fate with open arms."


So, how are you going to spend the next three days up until The Weeknd's fifth album, Dawn FM, drops on Friday?