A quick look at The Weeknds mixtape House of Balloons cover will confuse the listener at first, but as soon as they start listening to the songs, they’ll realize how much the portrait starts to pan out. The picture of a passed out naked woman in a bathroom with balloons covering everything but one exposed breast likely shows the aftermath of a crazy party from some kind of shitty American teen film right? One that she won’t likely remember. In fact, in the mixtape’s first song “High For This”, the chorus advises the girl that she should be, well, high for this. The lyrics laced throughout the nine-track project are filled with drug references, swagger and sexual conquest, that has a more real tone that other hip hop or R&B artists, its done in a more beautiful way, its not a Lil B, I’ma fuck your bitch nigga, it’s something else, a little bit of Frank Ocean or How To Dress Well, maybe a little bit reminiscent of the XX’s debut. An example would be “The Morning”, at the beginning of the verse, Tesfaye says that banging sounds coming from the walls of his room are reminiscent to an unborn baby kicking at its mother’s womb, not the smoothest line, but again, it’s real. The highlights for me have got to be Wicked Games and Loft music. House of Balloons is a very good debut release that deserves the co-signs it’s been getting. With the production taking on samples from bands like Beach House and Siouxsie and The Banshee’s, it’s something a little bit different, although one thing I can say is that some of the tracks drag on and get a little stale, but the highlights of the tape are just too good to ignore, every bit as good as the significant hype promises.
