The moment all of us Weeknd fans have been waiting for is finally here: Hurry Up Tomorrow dropped on Jan. 31 and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Announced on Sep. 4, 2024, The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, released his sixth studio album and finale to his three-part album After Hours trilogy. This curtain call of an album explores themes of identity and legacy, whilst the others deal with emotions associated with uncertainty and isolation.
Originally set to be released on Jan. 24, the album was postponed due to the spread of wildfires that destroyed and displaced people around LA County, only bringing destruction and devastation. He also canceled his accompanying show that was supposed to take place at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, and instead, dedicated his time before the album release to provide relief to the California wildfires. Along with a $1 million donation to various LA Wildfire relief organizations — including the LAFD Foundation and the LA Regional Food Bank — Tesfaye decided to further his involvement and dedication to relief by allocating proceeds from his new single “Take Me Back To LA” to the LA Regional Food Bank.
What fans may not know is that along with this donation, Tesfaye’s choice of song is one that closely reveals who is *truly* is and has become whilst in LA. Allow me to break down the lyrics.
Exploring themes of maturity and accountability, “Take Me Back To LA” highlights the transitional period from The Weeknd to Abel Tesfaye as he becomes his truest and fullest self. In the first verse, Tesfaye sings, “Take me back to LA / Where the sun would kiss on my face.” Calling back to his first trilogy album After Hours. Tesfaye flips on his original opinion of wanting to leave LA, as shown through his 2020 song, “Escape from LA” and now — instead of blaming LA for the root of his issues —, he has come to the understanding that only he is to blame for who he was then. He goes on to sing, “Take me back to a time / When my blood never tasted like wine,” calling to the imagery of Catholicism and how Jesus’s blood is turned into wine, relating back to Tesfaye’s journey to finding God through the course of this album.
In the first round of the chorus, he sings, “It’s better when I’m by myself, yeah” highlighting his newfound sense of being okay in the uncomfortableness of being alone and isolated, something that he feared prior. He goes on to reminisce on his hometown of Scarborough in Ontario, Canada, singing, “Take me back to a place/Where the snow would fall on my face / And I miss my city lights.” Here, we see the adolescent version of Tesfaye coming out where he yearns for a return home and sees it as a place he didn’t grow to appreciate whilst there, only when he was gone and what felt like “home” was no more.
He goes on in the pre-chorus, singing, “The days I would tell myself / It’s okay for me to scream / To scream, to scream.” Here, he is actively reflecting on the version of himself that is seen in After Hours and how his self-loathing was all-consuming of him as a person, as he put himself in an endless cycle of self-inflicted emotional pain. This really reveals the regret he holds as this version of himself has become like a stranger to him as time has gone on. In the second round of the chorus, he sings, “I hate it when I’m by myself / By myself (Oh),” completely going against what he had previously stated in the last chorus and finally becoming vulnerable and his true self as the song has progressed and so has he in his sense of becoming.
I personally love the vulnerability this song offers, and as an LA native and someone who was impacted by the fires and knows people who lost everything, this song as a way to provide relief not only through music but also financially is a huge step for an artist to take and trust me, it does not go unnoticed.