Welcome to the first Riot Act Review of Twenty Twenty Two! This week it’s quite an unusual event, as Steve and Remfry have a ma-hoo-sive new release to chat about in the usually notoriously quiet first week of the year. We go in-depth on Dawn FM the surprise released 5th album from Canadian electro, soul and pop singer songwriter The Weeknd. 

He may well be one of the most famous musicians on the planet right now, but The Weeknd is not your typical Riot Act artist, with one of our hosts having only vaguely dipped his toe into the back catalogue and the other having no prior knowledge of his work at all. Still, this is already a hugely significant release and Dawn FM is a pretty good place to start getting into The Weeknd, as its creator has spoken about the album being a brighter and lighter version of much of his previous material. As well as some seriously seductive and instantaneous 80’s inflected soul pop being present here we also get a varied plethora of famous voices lending their talents to the album, with the likes of Lil Wayne, Tyler The Creator, Quincy Jones and (we’re not making this up) JIM CARREY all lending their voices. The result is an album that is destined to be one of the biggest of the year in any genre … but, is it actually any good? 

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