Maura Johnston’s February 4, 2025, review reads Hurry Up Tomorrow as a reckoning with what success has done to The Weeknd persona—and as an open question about what Abel Tesfaye might do next. Johnston finds the sixth full-length album dazzling in places and frustrating in others: its sharp self-reflection and dense production can feel as compelling as they are heavy.
A career’s worth of baggage in 22 tracks
Johnston places the album against roughly a decade and a half of Tesfaye’s career, from the atmospheric mixtapes that established The Weeknd to mainstream pop success. That history gives the album’s reflections on fame and the recent past their stakes: this is not simply a collection of songs looking backward, but a work asking what remains of a persona built to absorb attention and excess.
At 22 tracks and nearly 90 minutes, Hurry Up Tomorrow gives that question a lot of room. Johnston hears strong production and moments of lyrical clarity, but also a weighty atmosphere that can make the album feel overlong. The scale is part of the point, yet it can also make the introspection feel burdened by its own importance.
“Wake Me Up” makes legacy the central question
The opening track, “Wake Me Up,” puts the album’s concern into a lyric Johnston quotes: “All I have is my legacy/ I’ve been losing my legacy.” It is a lyric performed by Tesfaye, not a statement from an interview. Its contradiction—having a legacy while feeling it slip away—sets up the tension that runs through the review: success has secured The Weeknd’s place in pop, but that certainty does not settle what the persona means to its creator.
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#1 Best Overall
Where the album opens up—and where it weighs itself down
Among the album’s resplendent moments, Johnston points to “São Paulo,” “Open Hearts,” “I Can’t Wait To Get There,” and “Drive.” These tracks offer a counterweight to the album’s more claustrophobic passages, where thick synths and sustained reflection can leave little room to breathe. The contrast is not a simple split between good songs and bad ones; it is between immersion that draws the listener in and density that risks enclosing the album within its own mood.
That push and pull also shapes the writing. Johnston values the moments when Tesfaye’s reflections become clear, while finding that the album’s self-examination can sometimes feel overburdened. The result is mixed rather than dismissive: Hurry Up Tomorrow has vivid passages, but its desire to make a grand statement can press too hard.
Does the ending close a chapter?
The closing title track turns toward regret and the imagery of a deathbed confession. In Johnston’s reading, that ending makes the album feel like a possible conclusion—not necessarily to Tesfaye’s career, but to a chapter or persona. The distinction matters: the review leaves open whether this is an ending, a pivot, or simply a moment of reckoning before another direction.
That uncertainty is what makes “legacy assessment” a fitting frame for the review. The album looks back at the costs and consequences of the identity that carried The Weeknd to pop success, but it does not provide a definitive announcement about what comes after it.
Rank #3
- Matching Songbook to the Album
- Features 10 Songs
- Guitar Recorded Versions
- Standard Notation and Tabs
- 80 Pages
Vinyl sequence
The Weeknd’s official credits page lists this vinyl sequence:
Quick Recap
Best Value
Rank #4
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| Side | Tracks |
|---|---|
| A | “Without a Warning,” “Cry For Me,” “São Paulo,” “Society,” “Take Me Back To LA” |
| B | “The Abyss,” “Open Hearts,” “Timeless,” “Give Me Mercy,” “Runaway,” “Red Terror” |
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