The Weeknd Initiation

A quick rundown of The Weeknd for those of you who've been visiting the moon for the past year or so: The Weeknd was a mysterious viral phenom, starting out with a few singles dropped at the end of 2010. Since then, Drake has promoted the artist, we found out his name is Abel Tesfaye, Toronto is his stomping ground of choice, Lady Gaga had some choice (negative) words about the artist, and all of his music has been released gratis.

Tesfaye shows such carnivorous talent and non-chalant drive that it feels as if he woke up one day and thought, "Yep, today seems like a good day to become famous." This single, "Initiation," was released over the weekend via Tesfaye's Tumblr account. For those of you who are impatiently waiting for the completion of The Weeknd's holy trinity of mixtapes, it is hopeful that "Initiation" is the prelude to the third release Echoes Of Silence. It would seem that "Initiation": Echoes Of Silence as "Rolling Stone": Thursday.

"Initiation" characterizes the darker, passionate side of The Weeknd; not-so-subtle hints about oral sex and pitch variances -- which make me think Abel's been spending QT with Jamie XX's "Far Nearer" -- draw a deep, harrowed picture as Tesfaye's dark chocolate 90's R&B vocals lap back and forth. All in all promising things for the upcoming release.

To download the second chapter of The Weeknd's mixtape trifecta visit the official website here. You can also stream some unreleased tracks by Tesfaye pre-The Weeknd here.