If you’re unsure who the man behind The Weeknd is, well, until recently that’d put you in fairly good company. See, no one knew who The Weeknd was. A cryptic Twitter feed and a self-released LP, House of Balloons, were all we could really go on. A couple of live shows changed things a bit and revealed Abel Tesfaye as the man behind the music. And what music it is. Conceptual, dark, dreamy R&B borrowing as much from Portishead as from R.Kelly. As it turns out, Balloons was just the first in a trilogy of mixtape albums from Tesfaye–Thursday being the second with Echoes of Silence to follow sometime in the near future. “The Zone” is a highlight from this second effort from The Weeknd and beats the melatonin-drip hip hop/R&B drum that is quickly becoming a signature for the artist as a young man. Even Drake manages to make an appearance without things getting too, um, Drake-y. And that’s a good thing.

The Weeknd – The Zone by The_Weeknd