Eponymous, max

Florence & The Machine - Shake It Out (The Weeknd Remix)

The Weeknd - House of Balloons

The Weeknd (AKA Canadian artist Abel Tesfaye) released his free mixtape House of Balloons back in March to great fanfare, and rightly so. Following the footsteps of artists like Drake looking to make a more minimal version of R&B than you typically get on the radio. With many R&B artists like Chris Brown and Rihanna moving their work more towards popular club-ready electro jams with giant hooks, The Weeknd looks to bring his unconventional R&B back to the bedroom. (I don’t think the sometimes-used term ‘hipster R&B’ is accurate, although his Beach House samples don’t really help my cause). With the internet making charging for albums seem increasingly untenable, more artists have been turning to releasing free albums (whether called mixtapes or otherwise) in recent years. The success of Drake—getting signed to Young Money and blowing up after releasing his So Far Gone mixtape—has possibly shown the path for new artists. I’ll post a couple other free mixtapes that I’ve really liked over the next few days.

You can download House of Balloons from The Weeknd’s website or below.

Highlights include: High For This, The Morning, Wicked Games

The Weeknd - House of Balloons (zip/140mb)