The Weeknd drops an emphatic mixtape

Thursday was recently crowned “The Day to Get Down” as 180,000 people visited The Weeknd’s website to download his new mixtape. Thursday.

The second installment of Abel Tesfaye’s nightmarish mixtape trilogy, brings The Weeknd’s sound to another level by amping up the instrumentation and featuring a relevant and popular artist, Drake.

The Weeknd, a contemporary R&B solo act fronted by Canadian Abel Tesfaye, released his mixtape House of Balloons to widespread critical acclaim in March, while Thursday and Echoes of Silence, the third installment, were slated for summer and fall releases, respectively. Predictably, The Weeknd’s latest proves to be a success as well, as it listens like a mix of Drake — taking “Marvin’s Room” melancholy to the extreme — and a doped out Sade crooning over dark, hauntingly beautiful beats.

Thursday opens with “Lonely Star,” having The Weeknd harmonize, Baby you could have it all / baby you don’t need your best friends / cause I got everything you want, with fatal reassurance.

The Weeknd’s progression only builds from the emotionally disturbing opener as Thursday stumbles into unfamiliar production territory with “Life of the Party.” With production sounding like a black sheep in the family of tracks on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Tesfaye welcomes you to the other side of his own creation with steady percussion, intense vocoder action and heavy synths.

One of the best-produced songs on the mixtape, “Life of the Party,” descends into the depths of drugged out production as it displays a bad example of peer pressure — it is hard to resist the pressure of indulging in this gem.

“Thursday,” on the other hand, is lyrically reminiscent of The Cure’s 1992 smash hit “Friday I’m In Love.” The similarities end there, however, as the production and ambiance of the track give a depressingly forsaken insight into the art of the “booty call.”

Even Drake got in on the sonic madness and publicly co-signed the act, making an appearance on “The Zone” — a standout on this mixtape. “The Zone” seems like it could have been pulled straight out of the track list for Take Care. The styles of The Weeknd and Drake blend seamlessly with a perfect falsetto chorus courtesy of Tesfaye and a killer verse by Drizzy. The production, the lyrics — seven minutes that could even get Britney Spears in the zone.

The Weeknd will be present on Drake’s own Take Care release. Maybe Canadian pride runs deep, or maybe their eerily similar sounds brought them together. Whatever the case, the collaboration on Thursday is a match made in heaven.

Thursday follows with “The Birds Part 1” and “The Birds Part 2.” The former is an intense warning (so don’t you fall in love / don’t make me make you fall in love) perched precariously over thumping war drums a là Beyonce of late.

The latter, a post-apocalyptic lament on fading love, juxtaposes itself nicely against the faster pace of Part I.

Together, “The Birds” illustrate a story of a star-crossed love, come and gone, that evokes eerie sentiments that would make Hitchcock proud.

“Gone” tours the various sensory reactions one feels under the influence (Drink it, drop it, drink it, spill it / You gotta taste it, feel it, rub it on me baby). Production is minimal on the track, but the way Tesfaye spits the drink it, drop it lines are catchy and addictive — like a drug created by the artist himself. The song trails off into “Runaway” territory (See Kanye West … again), as the middle of the song is simply ambient sounds. At eight minutes long, the track could easily have been divided up, or simply shortened.

“Rolling Stone” creates the ambiance of looking out a window on a rainy day and features a much-welcomed acoustic guitar that shakes up the feeling of the mixtape. The simple repetition of chords offers a soothing tone to a mixtape often heavy and emotionally tempestuous. Similarly, “Heaven or Las Vegas” offers piano, drums and guitar that blend graciously with the new-wave R&B synths backing the track.

The Weeknd pushes the boundary of R&B on Thursday and offers a mature look into a dark nightlife culture that is full of intense, depressing and disturbing subject matter.

But, if up for the challenge, Thursday encompasses everything that music needs these days: real situations, real emotions and real people.