Last week, The Weeknd surprised fans with "Heartless," a hard-edged new single. Listen and watch the lyric video above.
With boastful-yet-longing lyrics about women, drugs, and wealth over a hard-hitting Metro Boomin beat, "Heartless" is an instantly familiar song for fans of The Weeknd. Following 2016's Starboy album and 2018's My Dear Melancholy EP — which established him as a major pop star and then experimented with dark emotional electronic R&B — this new song is a return to the style that made Abel Tesfaye a cult icon on the Trilogy and Kiss Land albums that launched his career.
Abel is fully aware of his personal identity while reflecting his ongoing struggles, singing on the chorus, "And I'm back to my ways, 'cause I'm heartless / All this money and this pain got me heartless / Low life for life, 'cause I'm heartless... Trying to be a better man, but I'm heartless / Never be a weddin' plan for the heartless."
The lyric video is highly stylized, with quick movements, distortion, and after-effects. The end result is a psychedelic experience that works well in tandem with the song's druggy vibe. Across the vertical screen ideal for smartphones which is cropped to simulate a fisheye lens, the lyrics are shown between scenes of the singer and his friends living it up in Vegas — drinking, smoking, and gambling. Some things never go out of style.
Last year, The Weeknd shared during a public appearance that he was working on a new album called Chapter 6, but so far there have been no official announcements of the tracklist or release date. He also released a single for "Blinding Lights" last week, which veers toward a synth-pop style and sounds like a-ha's 1984 hit, "Take on Me."
For more, check out The Weeknd's Zumic artist page.
