Beauty Behind the Madness

The Weeknd was recognized for his dark R&B music until 2015, seen in his first three mixtapes released during 2011 and his debut studio album, Kiss Land. Released in 2013, Kiss Land was reviewed positively by critics, and charted at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Despite this, the album was considered a commercial underperformance, due to its failure to spawn successful singles and expand the Weeknd's fanbase.^[1] In his disappointment, the Weeknd approached Republic Records' head of urban A&R, Wendy Goldstein, for assistance.^[2]

Goldstein arranged for the Weeknd to work with American singer Ariana Grande and Swedish producer Max Martin on the single "Love Me Harder", released on September 30, 2014.^[3][2] The Weeknd was unsure of the single's success, until it reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first top ten single.^[4][5] Realizing he could make pop music in his own way, the Weeknd secured Martin as a producer for his next project, believing he would need songs similar to "Love Me Harder". Their first session together begun sometime in the fall of 2014, in Martin's complex. Martin's team initially had pre-written material for the Weeknd, but he rejected all of it, opting to write entirely new material instead. The first song Martin and the Weeknd wrote was "In the Night",^[2] and they worked on the song with Ali Payami, Savan Kotecha, and Peter Svensson. While working together, Payami found inspiration in modern disco influenced tracks, which led to the creation of "Can't Feel My Face".^[6]

Republic's A&R team also sent the Weeknd to work on the soundtrack to the 2015 film, Fifty Shades of Grey, during its early stages of development.^[7] In 2014, with parts of the film changing, its director, Sam Taylor-Johnson, wanted an song sung by a male artist for the end credits. This led to the Weeknd writing the song "Earned It", with Stephan Moccio, Jason "DaHeala" Quenneville, and Ahmad "Belly" Balshe, in October.^[8] Moccio would produce two other tracks from Beauty Behind the Madness, "Real Life" and "Angel".^[9] According to Moccio, the chords from "Real Life" were taken from the 1954 jazz standard "Misty".^[10] Moccio presented "Angel", which had pre-recorded vocals from American singer Maty Noyes, to the Weeknd, who liked the track.^[11]

The Weeknd also executive produced the album with Illangelo, who he worked with on his first three mixtapes, and DaHeala. Illangelo attained production credits for 7 of the 14 tracks on the album, producing "Dark Times" and "Prisoner" alone. For the rest of his production, Illangelo applied finishing touches, which required either major or minor effort. British singer Labrinth had already arranged the track "Losers" prior to sending it to Illangelo. "Tell Your Friends" was produced by American rapper Kanye West, with Illangelo's work on the song mainly being add-ons and recording the Weeknd's vocals. "The Hills", recorded at the Weeknd's home studio, was heavily built off of a demo produced by their mutual friend, Emmanuel "Mano" Nickerson.^[12]

Beauty Behind the Madness has been described by critics as a noticeable shift from the Weeknd's alternative R&B background to a more mainstream pop-oriented sound; with some of his original elements remaining intact.^[1][13] In addition to its alt-R&B^[14] and pop sonics,^[15] Beauty Behind the Madness incorporates elements of disco,^[16] funk,^[17] soul,^[18] art rock,^[19] blues,^[20] and trap.^[21] Influences of Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987) are also present throughout the album.^[22] Lyrical themes include romance, success, loneliness, self-loathing, and independence.^[23]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Beauty Behind the Madness ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.9/10[39]
Metacritic	74/100[40]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[14]
The A.V. Club	B[41]
Chicago Tribune	[42]
The Daily Telegraph	[43]
Entertainment Weekly	B[44]
NME	7/10[17]
The Observer	[45]
Pitchfork	7.2/10[16]
Rolling Stone	[22]
Spin	7/10[46]

Close

Beauty Behind the Madness was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 74, based on 26 reviews.^[40] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.9 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.^[39]

Sheldon Pearce of The A.V. Club said, "It expertly and carefully closes the gap between the Weeknd's perception and his reality".^[41] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said, "He's aiming for harder truths, creating pop that also works as a commentary on choice and consequence".^[42] Mackenzie Herd of Exclaim! said, "Beauty Behind the Madness proves that the Weeknd can thrive in the mainstream, and while the lyrics aren't overtly profound, he's proven that he is more versatile than previously thought, which is perhaps of greater importance at this stage in his career".^[47] Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly said, "Anyone looking for a collection of homages to the King of Pop will be disappointed. Those masterpieces ["Can't Feel My Face" and "In The Night"] are outliers, and they end up making Madness' missteps all the more jarring.... In the middle of those two poles lies a series of bass-heavy throb-and-moan blasts with the signature oddness (shape-shifting melodies, twitchy percussion) that makes the Weeknd a compelling artist".^[44] April Clare Welsh of NME said, "He may have softened his edge, upped the production and pulled in the stars, but the Weeknd remains an outsider".^[17] Andrew Ryce of Pitchfork said, "In the end, enjoying the Weeknd requires a certain suspension of disbelief, and that remains true on Beauty Behind the Madness. You really have to buy into his bad-guy persona.... For newcomers, there's a whole world to explore, and on Beauty Behind the Madness it's richer and smarter than ever".^[16]

Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone said, "If the sound has widened and even brightened in spots, the Weeknd still rocks a serious Eeyore vibe for much of Beauty Behind the Madness".^[22] Harley Brown of Spin said, "Beauty Behind the Madness is front-loaded with fresh directions for the Weeknd that achieve the impossible: make it sound like he's actually enjoying himself".^[46] Andy Kellman of AllMusic said, "The commercial strides are obvious. The creative advancements are less apparent, obstructed by some unappealing measures, but they're in there".^[14] Helen Brown of The Daily Telegraph said, ""Real Life" builds up to a pitch of doomed drama from a corrosive slash of guitar as Tesfaye confides that even his "Mama called me destructive". But Ed Sheeran fails to rescue him on the tedious "Dark Times" and Lana Del Rey—who ought to be his perfect partner in pop-noir—adds nothing but a bored spritz of vocal perfume to the lethargic "Prisoner"".^[43] Andy Gill of The Independent said, "Beauty Behind the Madness leaves one feeling just as estranged from Abel Tesfaye's depraved character as previous releases boasting less adhesive tunes".^[48] Kitty Empire of The Observer said, "The Weeknd's most conventional songs thus far are Sheeran's boringly retro "Dark Times", and "Shameless", a guitar ballad unredeemable even by its deranged guitar solo. Elsewhere, the step up is more convincing, if not always easy to listen to".^[45]

On August 31, 2015, Billboard estimated that Beauty Behind the Madness would sell approximately 300,000 copies during the first week of its release in the United States.^[74] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 412,000 album-equivalent units; it sold 326,000 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting its streaming activity and track sales. It marked the Weeknd's first number-one album.^[75] It remained atop the chart for the next two weeks and was the first album to spend three weeks at number one consecutively since Taylor Swift's 1989.^[76][77] The album also remained in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 for a total of 21 consecutive weeks.^[78] According to International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Beauty Behind the Madness was the tenth best-selling album of 2015 worldwide.^[79] As of August 2017, the album has earned 3.7 million equivalent album units in the United States, of which 1.23 million are in traditional album sales. The set has also generated 2.05 billion on-demand audio streams for its songs.^[80] It was the most-streamed album of 2015, and the fifth most-streamed album of 2016 on Spotify.^[81][82]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies an additional producer
• ^{^[c]} signifies a remixer

Sample credits

• "Tell Your Friends" contains a sample of "Can't Stop Loving You", written by Carl Marshall and Robert Holmes, and performed by Soul Dog.
• "Often" contains a sample of "Ben Sana Vurgunum", performed by Nükhet Duru.

Credits adapted from album's liner notes.^[83]

• List of number-one albums of 2015 (Australia)
• List of number-one albums of 2015 (Canada)
• List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s
• List of UK R&B Albums Chart number ones of 2015
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2015
• List of Billboard number-one R&B/hip-hop albums of 2015